Kinematics of Parallel Manipulators With Ground-mounted Actuators

A great deal of research work has been focussed on the theoretical and experimental studies of mechanical manipulators in recent years. Almost all of these works are related to open-loop serial-link mechanisms, but only a few have dealt with multi-degree-of-f reedom parallel manipulators such as the Stewart platform or similar mechanisms .

A new type of two-degree-of -freedom Rotary-Linear (R-L) actuator was adapted in this work. Several possible configurations of parallel six-degree-of-f reedom manipulators with ground-mounted actuators have been synthesized. With parallel configuration of the manipulators, the computations can be performed simultaneously. Therefore, the computation time will be significantly reduced. Workspace analysis of a six-degree-of -freedom parallel manipulator has been presented by determining the shapes and boundaries of the subworkspace and root regions in the subworkspace. The workspace of the manipulator is obtained as the common reachable region of the subworkspaces determined by the corresponding subchains. The orientation and the rotatability of the platform are also investigated.

Finally, mechanical error analysis of the manipulator, due to the minor inaccuracies in displacements of the actuators, is studied by using the theory of screws.

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