Development of a 2-DOF Singularity-Free Spherical Parallel Remote Center of Motion Mechanism With Extensive Range of Motion

In this paper, we report the development of an innovative two-degrees-of-freedom (2-DOF) spherical parallel remote center of motion mechanism (SPRCMM), which can offer a wide range of movement in both DOFs without encountering singularities. To facilitate the design process, the paper briefly reviews the existing spherical joints, including serial and parallel structures with and without the remote center of motion (RCM). Aiming at combining the advantages of these existing spherical joints, this paper proposes a novel design that utilizes the parallelogram mechanism to form a parallel RCM mechanism without using universal or spherical joints. Forward and inverse kinematics were constructed using the product of the exponentials. Moreover, space and closed Jacobians were derived, accompanied by manipulability in the available workspace for the mechanism. The prototype of the 2-DOF SPRCMM was built and experimentally evaluated. The experimental results confirm that the singularity-free motion of the two DOFs of the mechanism in a wide range is feasible, and the root mean squared errors in the trajectory tracking of the mechanism in most states were less than 10% of the motion range.