Error modelling and validation of a high-precision five degree of freedom hybrid mechanism for high-power high-repetition rate laser operations

The accuracy, repeatability and speed requirements of high-power laser operations demand the employment of five degree of freedom motion control solutions that are capable of positioning and orientating the target with respect to the laser(s)-target interaction point with high accuracy and precision. The combined serial and parallel kinematic (hybrid) mechanism reported in this paper is a suitable candidate for this purpose; however, a number of error sources can affect its performance. A kinematic model to analyse the errors causing the positional and orientational deviations of the target is described considering two rotational degrees of freedom of the hybrid mechanism. Strategies are outlined to simplify the error analysis and to determine the error parameters of the mechanism using the error model and an experimental technique.