Self Adjusting Platform

Mr. Slack gives good advice...

You are not familiar with the engineering/design process and therefore do not know what questions to ask, where to go for information and what trade-offs must be made.

I was a mechanical engineer for forty three years...

ALL projects/proposals had to address the four following questions:

- What are you trying to do with this project?

- What are the physical limitations for this project?

- What is your budget?

- What is your schedule?

Expect answers to all these questions to change as the project moves from preliminary to final stages.

As is so typical in certain parts of the world, do not put arbitrary and capricious limitations on the project (it must be blue, made of wrought iron or use 90 pneumatic pillars) at the conceptual phase of the project...

My opinion only...

Thanks for reply Mjcronin,

1.what are trying do this project ?

Ans-a flexible work space

2.what are physical limitations of this project Ans-100% Re-usability. Modular construct

3.what is your budget ?

Ans-To be defined after design. In principle the more number of time it is reusable the more budget it can have

4.what is scheduled ?

Ans-Not prepared

It is proper working platform...full with workstations, light machinery etc.

The questions in #2⇑ are intended to outline the appropriate thought processes that are necessary in any project. It is not necessary for them to be answered here, as the forum is not actually carrying out the design process for the equipment in question, as indicated in #9⇓.

No on-line forum ever designed the equipment necessary for one of mankind's greatest ever achievements.

Electro-mechanical much more desirable....air is compressible, that makes the platform unstable, then you have to deal with the moisture in the air, can get very expensive...

Thanks for replay SolarEagle Sir,

No I am not design a parking space . Its a proper working platform ...full with workstations, light machinery etc.

The platform design and electro-mechanical components may serve your purpose...

Not being an engineer, I would say that you have aread to break down your question into several categories.

1. The platform ; of what structure would require 90 pneumatic cylinders to support a platform to support a robot.

2. Can you provide technical details of the robot ?

3. The force required, heavily depends on the first two.

I may not be able to assist you, but there are several here who know how to work the numbers, and love a challenge.

Good luck in your endeavor.

First thing to realize is all things are possible.

you need to determine the weight of the platform sections, to determine what is the best method for moving and leveling.

I have witnessed a single man moving a 100 ton stone by himself and using only a pebble. The stone was balanced on the pebble so it was possible for him to move the stone using his own body weight and mussels. Of course the base he was moving it on was much heavier to support the stone.

Personally I would prefer screw jacks for the leveling as it would take a simple mechanism to raise and lower, and a minor cost to produce.

the platform weight weight would be determined by the activity it would be required to support. there are more decisions to be made before proceeding.

...which is the purpose of brainstorming...

I want to design prototype of Flexible proper workstation with light machinery.

No other reader on CR4 is in any position to prevent it.

Why do you want the height of the platform to adjust? Workstations are normally constructed on a solid base.

Its a solid base only. Adjustments are required in anticipation of
1) height adjusting mechanism can be efficient in achieving initial leveling.
b) for height adjustment after the platform is erected ( It is anticipate that the platform may loose height at some after the platform is erected)

Your main problem is not about leveling the platform it is about the rigidity of the platform and how you construct it. A welded structure will warp as the stresses created by the welding relieve. A 3m square machine bed that I once worked on took six months to become stable enough for the top surface to be machined flat to 5 microns. Learning from this experience we constructed all future machine beds from water jet cut 1" thick steel plate with mortise and tenon joints held in place by wedges. The stress relieve time was reduced to 3 weeks and had the added advantage that we could ship around the world as a flat pack then assemble and level a machine bed at the customer's site. First determine the tolerance that you need to achieve. Most robots have an inbuilt leveling mechanism so the requirement may not be as precise as you think. Then build your platform support structure mounted on three legs only. Tripods are inherently stable, distribute the loads roughly equally and reducing the number of supports dramatically reduces the cost the structure, the supports and the foundations. Screw jacks with a high ratio worm gear box would be my preferred option. The connection between the structure and the jack should be a lubricated cup and ball joint to minimize side loading. The structure will deform upwards where it is supported by the jacks but sag under gravity in all other places. Allow a lot of time (several months) for the structure to settle then attach the top surface by shimming to achieve your required level tolerance. The jacks can compensate for settlement in the ground level but because a tripod evenly distributes any load over the three legs adjusting them will not cause further deformation to the platform.

So many questions!

My first one, prompted by the vagueness of the question is what is your background? Do you have any engineering experience? What market do you see for your product? How much will it weigh? How high do you want to raise it? Pneumatics! I don't think so!

I could go on "Ad nauseam"!

John

Height can vary. Criteria is that it should be leveled. Another critria is services and maintainability. With this is mind height of 2 to 3 ft should be ideal.

Well, a varying height is a no-no for pneumatics as it is not possible to synchronize 2 cylinders accurately let alone 90.

You most probably will need a sophisticated (read expensive) hydraulic system, depending on how accurate you need the platform to move and stay level.

The "all up" weight will decide the number and size of the cylinders required.

A lot of calculations (estimates) will need to be done at an early stage to get some idea of the requirements.

John

"Sic transit nauseam".

I don't have a lot to offer, but coming from a guy who is familiar with robots, you must also consider the robot's payload and the moments that arise from moving this payload around the work space at a (potentially) rapid pace...

Basically you want to design a monster robot that have 90 pneumatically controlled legs that will be capable of lifting and carrying several other robots and instruments up and down?

The up and down motions of the 90 pneumatic automatic controls may possibly be a challenging problem to overcome as the 90 legs need to be all in sync to be level..even with a single source of air pressure..

I am beginning to suspect that Ajay Sahare may have an M.B.A. .....

Anything is <...possible...>.

I mentioned before, a special purpose design engineer I would do projects with would say "If we can put men on the mood we can do anything but have you got NASA's budget"

John

<...We...>.

<unsubscribes>.

A straight answer to you 1st question is no, it is not possible. As others have said you will never get safe consistent movement and position holding with multiple pneumatic cylinders. If air is your only choice you need to safely move to fixed positions and mechanically lock your platform in place.

I think your questions indicate you are working the problem backwards. First determine the work you want to perform and the equipment required, from that you can derive the loads on your foundation. Once you have that you can investigate appropriate methods for moving that foundation as a platform. If you want one design to serve multiple purposes you have to consider all of those purposes or you need to do the work of making your design scalable and establish proper limits for safety.

This is all still very vague.

So, as far as I can see the intention is a self levelling platform for some robotic machinery and workspace where the whole point is ensuring that the platform remains level while in service and only a small amount of levelling is required to counter platform subsidence (etc) and potentially a moderate amount of levelling initially to get the platform level before the robot starts work. The primary purpose of all this is to ensure that the robot has a fixed point of reference when working because it cannot take into account if it moves out of alignment with the object(s) it is working on.

What environment is this expected to operate in and what is the total estimated platform weight?

90 pneumatic pillars? You can lift building floors and push roadway bridge segments with a few large pneumatic pillars, with a platform of 800 sq. ft. 4 suitably sized pneumatic pillars at the corners on movable pivot joints (or similar) could provide suitable levelling of a steel structure platform floor (for example).

https://www.pneumatictips.com/pneumatic-system-guidelines-for-success/

https://www.advancelifts.com/work-access-platform-lifts/work-access-design-guide/

https://www.avnet.com/wps/portal/abacus/solutions/technologies/sensors/pressure-sensors/media-types/pneumatic-hydraulic/

https://www.aerodefensetech.com/component/content/article/adt/supplements/amm/features/34545

An 800 ft² platform could be, say, 20 ft x 40 ft. This could be supported by 6 pillars, with 20-ft spans each way. I would use that as a design starting point. (Unless there is some as yet ungiven info that prevents that approach.)

If one were stuck with pneumatics then it might be easier to use a flotation bag:

Rather than support the <...robot...> with a <...platform...> it might make more sense for the <...robot...> itself to be <...self adjusting...> and do away with the <...platform...> altogether.

I try to leveling ground surface to relocate workshop. Self adjusting platform is a idea that I thought will be basic to this kind of solution. 90 Pillars also is just an idea.Robots again are optional. I am not professional and niether experience like all of you .
Thank you ,Mr PWSlack ,MJCronin,SolarEagle,tonyhemet,randolph garrison,jhhassociates,jesw55,jack of all trades,Tornado .

<...leveling ground surface...Robots again are optional...>:

?

"The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place" - George Bernard Shaw, 1856