A Novel High Rigid 2-DOF Parallel Translating Robot

A novel high rigid two DOF (degree of freedom) parallel translating robot is presented in this paper. Firstly, a new passive mechanism which can translate freely along a circular path is presented based on the singularity configuration of the 3-UPU (universal-prismatic-universal) parallel manipulator. And the novel two degree of freedom parallel translating manipulator whose orientation can remain constant is put forward by the new passive mechanism. Then the kinematics of the two degree of freedom parallel translating manipulator is studied. Closed form solutions are developed for both the inverse and forward kinematics. The Jacobin matrix of the two degree of freedom parallel translating manipulator is also derived. Besides, a description of the workspace for the mechanism is provided. The new passive mechanism gives the novel 2-DOF translational parallel manipulator a good architecture to resist the force which is perpendicular to the kinematics plane. And its rigidity perpendicular to the kinematics plane is higher than the other 2-DOF translational parallel manipulators.