Kinematic analysis and design of a novel 6-degree of freedom parallel robot

Abstract

A novel 3-UP3R parallel mechanism with six degree of freedoms is proposed in this paper. One most important advantage of this mechanism is that the three translational and three rotational motions are partially decoupled: the end-effector position is only determined by three inputs, while the rotational angles are relative to all six inputs. The design methodology via GF set theory is brought out, using which the limb type can be determined. The mobility of the end-effector is analyzed. After that, the kinematic and velocity models are formulated. Then, workspace is studied, and since the robot is partially decoupled, the reachable workspace is also the dexterous workspace. In the end, both local and global performances are discussed using conditioning indexes. The experiment of real prototype shows that this mechanism works well and may be applied in many fields.