A high performance 6-DOF haptic Cobot

A novel, six-degree-of-freedom active haptic device is introduced. A parallel kinematic design and the use of non-holonomic continuously variable transmissions provide extremely high stiffness in directions that would violate a virtual constraint. At the same time, smooth motion is permitted tangential to virtual constraints and in open space. High quality constraint surfaces having one to five dimensions can be displayed. A notable feature of this device is the mutual coupling of all six linear actuators to a common rotating cylinder, which can, optionally, be powered. The resulting mechanism is simple to control, and allows several new control strategies in Cobotic haptics.