Active Control of a Ship Cabin Motion Using 3-DOF Parallel mechanisms

Jong-Gug Bae, Ho-Seok Shim, Jeh Won Lee

School of Mechanical Engineering.
Yeungnam University,
Gyongsan, 712-749 Korea.
E-mail: jwlee@yu.ac.kr

ABSTRACT - The demand for the stable and isolation mechanisms.

comfortable cabin of a high speed passenger ship is
increasing. The study on shipboard comfort has been
mainly concentrated on the motion control of a whole
hull body. In this study, however, a new control
system operated by two parallel mechanisms (3RPS,
The ship motion consists of pitching,
3SPR) such as the active suspension system of motor
rolling, and heaving θ θ . The 3
vehicle is proposed. The goal of this control is
keeping zero velocity of the upper mechanism (cabin) dimensional motion platform is required
although the lower mechanism (ship) is moving by the to protect the motion transfer from the
waves. Jacobian matrix was used to design the ship to the cabin or the accurate
controller. From the simulation results, the instruments as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig.
remarkable reduction of motion of the cabin (upper 2. The platform has three extensible
platform) was observed. The 3SPR parallel mechanism legs which generate the 3D motion of the
shows better performance compared to the 3RPS
upper platform by changing the leg
mechanism.
length. The lower platform and legs are
connected by the rotational joint and
Key Words - Active control, Parallel mechanism, Ship cabin,
3RPS, 3SPR, the upper platform and legs are connected
by ball socket joints as shown in Fig. 1.
This kind of mechanism is called 3RPS
1. Introduction parallel mechanism. However, as shown in
Fig. 2, 3SPR mechanism is assembled by
The most research on the ship cabin the joints in the reverse direction.
motion was the improvement of the
navigation. However, the research on the
sensibility of boarding is currently 2.1 Inverse Kinematics
studied.[1] Among them, the cabin and
ship is separated and the ship motion is The inverse kinematics is the
controlled by the active control method procedure of solving the length of each
like the automobile suspension [2]. legs when the center position
However, the active control system need of upper platform θ θ is given
the accurate absolute and relative [3].
position information
In this research, The cabin of high
speed passenger ship is controlled by
active control. Two parallel mechanism is
installed to represent ship and cabin.
The lower mechanism is excited to
generate the ship motion and the upper
mechanism represents the cabin and is
controlled by parallel link legs. Two
types of robot are proposed and compared
their performance to find the better Fig. 1 Spatial 3-DOF, 3RPS Parallel mechanism
 The origin and coordinates of the The length of each leg is described
lower platform is represented by O and by Eq. (6) as shown in Fig. 1.
[x, y, z]. x axis direct toward joint A1. (6)
The origin and coordinates of the upper
platform is represented by P and [u, v, Substitute Eq. (2), (3) and (5) into
w]. u axis direct toward joint B1. Eq. (6) and apply several constraints,
The relationship between fixed the solution is described by Eq. (7)
coordinate O and moving coordinate P is
described by Eq. (1).
 
  (1)
 
 

If the lengths between lower platform

origin O and joint are described by
g, the vector between origin O and each
joint, are described by Eq. (2).

(7)

(2) 2.2 Direct Kinematics

The direct kinematics is the procedure

to find the variable of upper platform,
If the lengths between upper origin P      when the length of each leg,

and joint are described by h, the , is given.

vector between origin O and each joint, Eq. (8) is derived by applying several
are described by Eq. (3). constraint for each legs.
 φ
 
 
 φ 

(3)  φ 
 
 
 
 φ  (8)
 

 φ 
 φ 
Because the upper platform is 



 
triangle, the edge length is like as Eq.  φ 
 
(4).  φ 

(4) Eq. (9) is derived by squaring both

side of Eq. (4).
If the vector between the origin of (9)
fixed coordinates, O and the origin of
moving coordinate, P is described by Eq. (10) is derived by substituting
, the vector between the origin of Eq. (8) into Eq. (9) and simplifying it.
fixed coordinates, O and vertices of the
upper platform, is represented by Eq.            (10)

(5).             

(5) where
 Eq. (11).

π
φ

π
φ (11)
The angle of each leg is obtained by
solving 8 th order polynomial which is
φ
derived by substituting half angle
formula into Eq. (10). The vector of
φ
each leg, , can be obtained by
substituting the angle into Eq. (8). The
vector between origins from lower and
φ
upper platform, , is calculated by
. (a) 3RPS movement (b) 3SPR movement
Fig. 3 Difference of 3RPS and 3SPR
Because vectors , , makes
triangular, each inner angle can be
calculated as shown in Fig. 1. the angle 3. Jacobian Analysis of Parallel mechanism.
∠ can be obtained from triangle
, From this angle, rolling angle θ The input of Jacobian of 3RPS
is also calculated. θ is also calculated mechanism is the variable of each leg,
using similar method.
̇ ̇ ̇ ̇ , and the output of
Jacobian is the angle derivate and the
position derivate of z axis
2.3 Position Analysis of 3SPR parallel ̇ φ ̇ φ ̇ .
mechanism The vector B is represented by Eq.
(12) as shown in Fig. 1.
The structure of 3SPR parallel
mechanism is the reverse of 3RPS parallel
(12)
mechanism as shown in Fig. 2. Therefore,
the inverse and direct kinematics of both
Derivate Eq. (12) about time and
mechanism is the same.
rearrange it by velocities, Eq. (12)
becomes Eq. (13).

ω ̇ (13)

where, represent the velocity of

point P and ω represents the angular
velocity of point B with respect to point
P. is the unit position vector of each
leg . ω is the angular velocity of

Fig. 2 Spatial 3-dof of 3SPR parallel mechanism

each leg, , with respect to fixed
coordinates. The angular velocities are
However, the origin of upper platform of eliminated by inner product with and
3SPR move slightly from that of 3 3RPS as the relationship is represent by matrix
shown in Fig. 3. The movement comes from form as Eq. (14)
the rotation φ . Therefore, the relative
position can be obtained from angel φ as
 ω  The angular velocity of x and y axis
  ̇ (14)
  and the linear velocity of z axis
 
̇ φ ̇ φ ̇ can be measured by
Jacobian matrix is obtained by apply
Eq. (14) to each leg as shown in Fig.
(15).

   φ ̇  

̇

   φ ̇   ̇  (15)
    
    ̇

where i,j,k is effective only for the

component of x, y, z axis Eq. (16) is a
general form of Jacobian. (a) 3RPS (b) 3SPR

  Fig. 4 Two model of parallel mechanism

  (16)
 
 
accelerometer. In order to control
the motion of upper platform of upper
The forward Jacobian, the velocity of
mechanism, the velocity of upper
upper platform, ̇ with respect to the
mechanism must be controlled by 0 in
derivative of each leg ̇, is represented spite of the motion of lower mechanism.
by Eq. (17) Then, the reference input of upper
mechanism          is set by 0.
̇ ̇ (17) The velocity of upper platform of upper
mechanism is fed back to generate the
The inverse Jacobian is represent by error signal. The error signal is
Eq. (18). transformed to reference variable ̇ by
inverse Jacobian as shown in Fig. 5. The
̇ ̇ (18)
control system is implemented by Simulink
program [5].
The velocity of upper platform of 3SPR
mechanism is equal in magnitude and
opposite in direction to 3RPS because
3SPR mechanism is reverse type of 3RPS
PI
mechanism .
PI

4. Numerical Simulation Fig. 5 Block diagram of control system

4.1 Sysem Modelling

4.3 Simulation Result
The simulation is performed by Visual
Nastran Desktop software[4] as shown in The roll, pitching, heaving motion
Fig. 4. The lower mechanism generate φ φ is generated by the leg
roll, pitch, and heave motion using 3RPS motion of lower mechanism whose magnitude
joint. 3RPS and 3SPR type upper is 50 mm and their period is 3 second
mechanism is attached on the lower with 60° phase lag. The exciting angle
mechanism respectively. time response of lower mechanism is shown
in Fig. 6. The rotation angle of x axis
4.2 Controller Design and y axis are ± 3.03° and ± 9.25°
respectively.
Fig. 6 Rolling( φ ) & pitching( φ ) of Base
3RPS system
As shown in Fig. 7, the displacement
of z axis is the sinusoidal motion whose
magnitude is ±33.49mm.
Fig. 7 Heaving(z) of Base 3RPS system
4.3.1 Control Result of 3RPS mechanism
When the lower mechanism generate 3D
ship motion, 3RPS type the upper
mechanism can isolate this motion. The
orientation of x and y axis can be
reduced to ± 0.12° from ± 3.03° and ±
0.31°from ±9.25°respectively in Fig. 8
and 9.
Fig. 8 Control result of X axis orientation of 3RPS
Fig. 9 Control result of Y orientation of 3RPS
Z axis displacement is reduced from
±3 3.49 mm to ±3.66 mm as shown in Fig.
10.
Fig. 10 Control result of Z movement of 3RPS
As shown in the above result, 3RPS
system is very effective to control roll,
pitching and heaving motion. However,
the origin deviate in x, y direction ±
24.34mm, ± 68.67mm respectively as shown
in Fig. 11 due to the constraint of lower
mechanism. Even though the velocity of
upper platform is controlled, the
position is deviated from the original
position.
4.3.2
Following results are derived when
3SPR mechanism is used.
The orientation of x and y axis can be
reduced to ± 0.09° from ± 3.03° and ±
0.05° from ± 9.25° respectively in Fig.
12 and 13.
Fig. 11 Movement of X-Y direction of 3RPS system Fig. 14 Control result of Z movement of 3SPR

Fig. 12 Control result of X orientation of 3SPR

Fig. 15 Movement of X-Y direction of 3SPR system

Table 1 The simulation results for 3RPS and 3SPR

parallel mechanisms

φ ± ° ± ° ± °

Fig. 13 Control result of Y orientation of 3SPR φ ± ° ± ° ± °

Z axis displacement is reduced from ±
33.49 mm to ± 3.65 mm as shown in Fig.
14.
As shown in the above results, 3SPR
system has a similar performance with
3RPS system. However, x and y direction
deviation is more small in 3SPR system
compare to 3RPS system. The amount of
deviation is ± 7.87mm, ± 2.20 mm
respectively as shown in Fig. 15.
The above results are summarized in Table
1.
± ±
± ±
± ± ±
5. Conclusion
The ship cabin isolation system is
modelled by two type of 3RPS and 3SPR
parallel mechanism. The kinematics and
Jacobian are derived. The ship motion is
generated by the lower mechanism. the
ship motion, roll, pitching and heaving
motion, is isolated by upper parallel
mechanism using active control.
 Both type mechanism shows good result
in isolation but 3RPS mechanism generate
the x, y direction side deviation
compared to 3SPR mechanism .
Therefore, 3RPS type mechanism is the
more efficient mechanism than 3SPR type
mechanism for ship motion isolation.

Acknowlegement

This research is supported by Brain Korea

21 fund of Yeungnam University

References