Workspace-oriented methodology for designing a parallel manipulator

Presents a method for designing optimal parallel manipulators of the Gough platform type, according to design constraints like a specified workspace, best accuracy over the workspace, minimum articular forces for a given load, etc. A reduced set of design parameters is defined and the workspace constraints are used to compute the zone of the parameters space which define all the robots whose workspace include the desired workspace. Then a numerical search is performed in this zone to determine the robot which optimize some other criterion. The author shows how the method has been used to design a robot whose accuracy was specified to be better than 1 μm for a nominal load of 500 kg