A Novel Structure Design Method for Parallel Manipulators

By analyzing the constraint characteristic of each limb of parallel manipulators, the Structure forms can be designed corresponding to certainty kinetic catachrestic form of parallel manipulator. Conventional design method is that one or more actuated joints included in one limb and other joints are passive, then the coefficients of these passive joints baffled the analysis process of inverse/forward kinematics solutions. In this paper, the limb forms of parallel manipulators are classified to two kinds, one is called constraint limb and the other is called actuated limb, that is, the function of constraint limb only provided constraint for parallel manipulator and determine the kinetic characteristic for parallel manipulator, and the function of actuated limb only provided drive for parallel manipulator. The actuated limbs are composed by UCU, SPS and so on. By this novel structural design method, kinematic analyses of parallel manipulators are simpler than conventional design method.