In collaboration with STFC, Olsen has taken an additional 37m2 assembly cell at the Engineering Technology Centre (ETC), for the in house development of a new range of high-performance hexapods. The initial prototype is rated at 600kg, 250mm travel, 254mm/s, 30-degree rotation, 1g accel / decel with a +/-1um positional accuracy. The mechanical design is completed including a 7th Rotary axis for additional software development. Metal is cut and anodising is in process.
Applications include flight, vehicle, mining simulators, gaming simulation, testing of components including earthquake simulation, marine chair stabilisation platforms and active docking walkways for offshore oil & gas/wind turbine maintenance. Exlar actuators have the possibility to include integrated load cell and gyro feedback. The software development is to include a universal front end for all applications, all sizes of Hexapods and the ability to accept, flight model data / 6DOF input to translate to the given setpoints with an adjustable performance filter, HMI, data logging, gyro input and load cell control loops over EtherCat.