The Free-piston linear generator (FPLG) is a novel energy converter which can generate electrical energy and is regarded as a potential technology for solving the restriction of the short driving range of electric vehicles. Getting rid of the crank and flywheel mechanism, FPLG obtains some advantages of a variable compression ratio, compact size, and highly-efficient power generation. Linear electric machine (LEM) design and piston motion control are two key technologies of FPLG. However, they are currently the main obstacles to the favorable performance of FPLG. LEM being used to drive the piston motion or generate electric energy is an integrated design including a motor/generator. Various types of LEMs are investigated, and suitable application scenarios based on advantages and disadvantages are discussed. The FPLG’s controller is used to ensure stable operation and highly-efficient output. However, cycle-to-cycle variations of the combustion process and motor/generator switching make it difficult to improve the performance of the piston motion control. Comments on the advantages and disadvantages of different piston motion control methods are also given in this paper.

In high-end testing and manufacturing equipment, a trend exists whereby the traditional servo feed system with a ball screw and rotary motor will gradually be replaced by a direct drive system. The precision motion system driven by a permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) offers several advantages, including high speed, high acceleration, and high positioning accuracy. However, the operating precision of the feed device will be affected by the PMLSM robustness to nonlinear and uncertain disturbances, such as cogging force, friction, thermal effects, residual vibration, and load disturbance. The aim of this paper was to provide a survey on disturbance analysis and suppression approaches to improve the dynamic performance of PMLSM motion systems. First, the origin and inhibition methods of thrust ripple and friction are presented. Second, the mechanisms, modeling approaches, and mitigation measures of thermal effects are introduced. Additionally, the residual vibration characteristics and suppression methods are discussed. Finally, disturbance observers of periodic and aperiodic loads are introduced. These suppression methods from structural design and control compensation are then discussed in order to improve the dynamic response and steady-state accuracy of PMLSM.

This paper focuses on the kinematic design issues for a three degrees-of-freedom (DOFs), i.e., two-rotational and one-translational (2R1T) end-effector to perform continuous contact operations, such as deburring, grinding, and polishing. The proposed end-effector design employs a 3-legged prismatic-prismatic-spherical (3-PPS) parallel mechanism due to its desired kinematic characteristics and dynamic behavior. As the 3-PPS parallel mechanism is featured with zero-torsion motion characteristic, the orientation of its moving platform can be always represented by a rotation about an axis parallel to its base platform plane. Through analysis of the rotation matrix of the moving platform, closed-form linear solutions for both forward and inverse displacement analyses are readily derived. Other critical design issues, such as passive prismatic joint displacement, parasitic motion, velocity, and singularity analyses, are addressed. For a specific dimension design of the 3-PPS parallel mechanism, the workspace analysis indicates that the proposed design can achieve a singularity-free ±12°×±12°×25 mm workspace. Furthermore, as the displacements of the passive prismatic joints are within 2.63 mm, light-weight flexure-based prismatic joints are designed to replace the conventional heavy linear guides. The flexure-rigid structure of the 3-DOF 2R1T end-effector significantly improves the dynamic performance of the system. A prototype of the 3-DOF 2R1T robotic end-effector is designed and fabricated to verify the proposed design.

Installing force-controlled end-effectors on the end of industrial robots has become the mainstream method for robot force control. Additionally, during the polishing process, contact force stability has an important impact on polishing quality. However, due to the difference between the robot structure and the force-controlled end-effector, in the polishing operation, direct force control will have impact during the transition from noncontact to contact between the tool and the workpiece. Although impedance control can solve this problem, industrial robots still produce vibrations with high inertia and low stiffness. Therefore, this research proposes an impedance matching control strategy based on traditional direct force control and impedance control methods to improve this problem. This method’s primary purpose is to avoid force vibration in the contact phase and maintain force–tracking performance during the dynamic tracking phase. Simulation and experimental results show that this method can smoothly track the contact force and reduce vibration compared with traditional force control and impedance control.

This work focuses on kinematic design of a three degree-of-freedom (DOF) θ x -θ y -Z force-controlled end-effector for robotic finishing applications. Among various possible parallel mechanism configurations that can achieve θ x -θ y -Z motions, 3-legged Prismatic-Prismatic-Spherical (3PPS) configuration is selected for the end-effector design due to its desired kinematic characteristics and dynamic behavior. As the orientation of the end-effector’s moving platform can be represented by a rotation about an axis in the horizontal plane, close-form solutions for both forward and inverse displacement analysis can be readily derived. Other critical design issues, such as velocity analysis, singularity analysis, and workspace analysis, are addressed. Based on kinematic analysis, the required displacements of the passive prismatic joints are within a few millimeters. Therefore, light-weight flexure-based prismatic joints are employed to replace the conventional heavy linear guides, which can significantly improve the dynamic performance of the force-controlled end-effector. Finally, the structure design of this force-controlled end-effector is provided.