Redundant Parallel Mechanism for Haptic Applications

Abstract

With haptic devices becoming increasingly common in both industrial field and consumer use, parallel mechanisms have been widely introduced for their high rigidity, output, accuracy and high backdrivability due to their multi-legged structure and fixed base actuators. In general parallel mechanism, redundancy enlarges the working area and avoids singularity. The redundant parallel mechanism we present introduces these advantages into haptic applications. Introducing this mechanism into a multiple degrees-of-freedom (DOF) structure realizes a wide range of working areas in rotation. The redundant parallel mechanism implemented in translational force display device, and multi-DOF force display device demonstrate the advantages of the redundant parallel mechanism in haptic applications. Following an overview, we introduce the prototype implementation and evaluation of these devices and discuss the effectiveness of the redundant parallel mechanism in haptic applications.