Design and workspace analysis of a 3-degree-of-freedom parallel swivel head with large tilting capacity

Abstract

Traditional parallel mechanisms are usually characterized by small tilting capability. To overcome this problem, a 3-degree-of-freedom parallel swivel head with large tilting capacity is proposed in this article. The proposed parallel swivel head, which is structurally developed from a conventional 3-PRS parallel mechanism, can achieve a large tilting capability by means of structural improvements. First, a modified spherical joint with a maximum tilting angle of ±120° is devised to diminish the physical restrictions on the orientation workspace. Second, a UPS typed leg is introduced for the sake of singularity elimination. The superiority of the proposed parallel swivel head is theoretically proved by investigations of singularity-free orientation workspace and then is experimentally validated using a prototype fabricated. The theoretical and experimental results illustrate that the proposed parallel swivel head has a large tilting capacity and thus can be used as swivel head for a hybrid machine tool which is designed to be capable of realizing both horizontal and vertical machining.