Many of the robotic mechanisms such as Stewart Gough use rotating linear actuators in their design. In this article, the lateral vibration of a 3-D linear and flexible rotating prismatic actuator with a tip mass has been investigated. First, the actuator is modeled with commercial FEM software, ABAQUS. Results are next verified using an analytical method. The linear actuator consists of two parts, a flexible and a rigid part. It performs both linear and rotating motion about the normal axis of the actuator plane. In the FEM approach, the explicit dynamic solver is used to simulate the dynamic motions and vibrations. Details of settings used for the numerical solver and boundary conditions are presented. The lateral vibrations are extracted for the tip of the actuator. Next, for the analytical approach, Rayleigh-Ritz equation is used. Results are compared with the FEM simulation results. It is shown that the two results are in good agreement which proves the correctness of the FEM simulation. Results obtained in this study can be used in an optimal design of robots requiring rotating linear actuators.

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