Universidad de Cantabria · Mechanical Engineering
Santander, Spain · 2020
A 6-DOF hexapod to move people safely onto floating wind platforms
Engineering of a 6RSS hexapod robot for safe personnel transfer to floating offshore wind units: multibody analysis, servo drives and PLC motion control.
- 6
- degrees of freedom
- 6 × 1 kW
- AC servomotors, 77.88:1 reduction
- 6RSS
- leg architecture
1The challenge
Stepping onto a platform that never stops moving
Maintenance crews for floating offshore wind turbines have to cross from a vessel to a platform that moves on the waves. The goal was a safe transfer system that compensates that motion.
2The solution
A hexapod that cancels the motion
A fixed base and a mobile platform driven by six servo-actuated legs, each with a rotational joint and two spherical joints (6RSS). Multibody mechanics in MSC Adams, workspace studies in MATLAB, 1 kW AC servomotors with a 77.88:1 reduction, and inverse and direct kinematics programmed on a Lenze PLC with an HMI for trajectory, speed and acceleration.
3What it shows
The engineering behind every Silentflex design
The same simulation-first method (multibody dynamics, then prototype) is how Silentflex engineers design custom isolation systems.
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