RoboTenis: Design, dynamic modeling and preliminary control

The accomplishment of robotic tasks involving dynamical environments requires lightweight yet stiff structures, actuators allowing for high acceleration and high speed, fast sensor signal processing, and sophisticated control schemes which take into account the highly nonlinear robot dynamics. As a tool for the investigation of these issues we present the RoboTenis system. This system proposes the design and construction of a high-speed parallel robot that will perform complex tasks aided by a vision system. As a specialized application to demonstrate its speed and versatility we intend the robot to play table tennis. In this paper we present the design of the parallel robot, the dynamic modeling and the first control experiences. The results prove that the system is able of performing the desired task.