Workspace analysis of parallel mechanism with adjustable link parameters

Parallel mechanism has some good advantages, but small workspace is a big drawback (Merlet, 2000). We have proposed a parallel mechanism with adjustable link parameters in the previous paper (Arai and Takayama, 2000; Arai and Koseki, 2004, 1998). In this mechanism, there is a need to adjust the suitable link parameters for the required workspace for certain task. In this paper, we discuss the workspace and voids of linearly actuated parallel mechanism with adjustable link parameters. We divide the mechanism into normal and transfigured type and compare these parameters with each other in order to analyze the properties of mechanism at different positions