Constrained structural optimisation of a revolute-jointed planar parallel manipulator

This paper addresses kinematic analysis and constrained structural optimisation of a five-bar planar parallel manipulator articulated with revolute joints only. The kinematics of the manipulator is investigated, and its Jacobian matrix as a function of the input joint positions has been formulated. An objective function based on minimizing the overall deviation of the condition number of the manipulator Jacobian matrix from the ideal condition number throughout the workspace of the manipulator has been employed to determine the link lengths subjected to a set of optimisation constraints. Optimisation results indicate that the proposed optimisation method is systematic, versatile and easy to implement for the optimal synthesis of the five-bar parallel manipulator and other kinematic chains.