Influences analysis of configurations on the performance of parallel type six-axis accelerometers

The development of parallel type six-axis accelerometers was hindered for their complicated forward kinematics and dynamics algorithms which make it difficult to decouple the six acceleration components timely, accurately and stably. This paper applies four parallel configurations with 6-DOF and a closed-form solution of the forward kinematics to six-axis accelerometers as the elastic bodies, where the piezoelectric ceramics act as the sensitive elements and play the role of prismatic pairs. An efficient decoupling algorithm was derived to calculate the six acceleration components completely by the use of Kane's dynamics method in configuration space. Considering the differences in sensing properties of the four six-axis accelerometers, a quantitative comparison was conducted to reveal the configurations' direct influences on some static characteristics, including accuracy, efficiency, sensitivity, isotropy, and working frequency range, which makes a theoretical foundation for the subsequent design of a reconfigurable prototype.