PAMINSA: A new family of partially decoupled parallel manipulators

In this paper, a new family of parallel manipulators called PAMINSA is presented. The particularity of these manipulators is the decoupling of the displacements of the platform in the horizontal plane from its translation along the vertical axis. Such a decoupling allows the cancellation of the loads of gravity on the actuators which displace the platform in the horizontal plane. Parallel mechanisms from 3 to 6 degrees of freedom based on this property are systematized and the advantages of each are presented. The classification, singularity analysis and input torques optimization are then discussed. A prototype of the proposed manipulator with four degrees of freedom and experimental validations of the suggested concept are also presented. All obtained numerical simulations are approved by experimental tests.