Topological and Geometrical Synthesis of Three-Degree-of-Freedom Fully Parallel Manipulators by Instantaneous Kinematics

This paper presents a new synthesis procedure of fully parallel manipulators (PMs) of three degrees of freedom (DOFs) that could be implemented in a computer-aided synthesis process. Possible designs of PMs are represented by a set of unit joint twists at an initial configuration, called here topological and geometric parameters (TGPs). This makes it possible to represent PMs of all topologies and geometries in an easy and consistent way. The kinematic bond between the end effector (EE) and the base is then formulated as a set of equations involving TGPs, actuated-joint variables, and non-actuated-joint variables (passive joints). To achieve the required type of EE motion, possible topologies are first derived from tangent space analysis, and then the feasible topologies are retained by further displacement analysis. The geometries are determined such that the set of equations should be isoconstrained when passive-joint variables are taken as unknowns. The synthesis procedure of 3DOF PMs is illustrated with three numerical examples: one producing a new architecture of one translation and two rotations, while the other two producing existing architectures of translational PMs.