Workspace and dexterity analyses of hexaslide machine tools

This paper presents kinematic analysis of a class of parallel manipulators, namely, Hexaslides, for machine tool applications. Hexaslides have constant-length legs. The inverse and direct kinematics solutions, to study the workspace properties of hexaslides are presented. Various kinematic performance indices, namely, workspace volume, workspace volume index, i.e. the ratio of workspace volume to machine size and global dexterity index of hexaslides having same foot print size are used to study different rail-arrangements. Secondly, effect of two important parameters related to configuration, i.e. gap between adjacent rails in case of hexaslide configuration and inclination of rails incase of slanted configuration, on the performance measures is presented.