Dear all,
for all of you enthusiasts of parallel manipulator, you are aware of the invention of the Hexapod that was made by Gough and Whitehall during the fifties and was presented at a FISITA congress in 1962. Here is the reference
Gough V.E. and Whitehall S.G. Universal tire test machine. In Proceedings 9th Int. Technical Congress F.I.S.I.T.A., volume 117, pages 117-135, Mai 1962
This led to another man called Stewart to propose them as mobile platforms for aircraft simulators which led to companies such as CAE Electronics of Montreal or Thomson-CSF of Paris to very sucessfull business. That's why the Hexapods are often called Stewart platforms (wronlgy, according to J.P. Merlet).
As you can see, my reference is quite incomplete, can anyone tell where that FISITA congress took place ?
Thanks a lot,
Luc Rolland