Dimensional synthesis of a 3-DOF parallel manipulator

Kinematics analysis and dimensional synthesis are two important problems of a parallel manipulator. Dimensional synthesis is optimization of the kinematic parameters according to desired workspace or other design requirements. In this paper, the dimensional synthesis of a 3-DOF parallel manipulator, which mimics DELTA robots, is studied considering maximum inscribed workspace and reciprocal of the condition number on the workspace section based on the concept. The kinematic model of the 3-DOF parallel manipulator is given at first. The golden section search is used to search the workspace of the manipulator and mesh the boundary. Then the algorithm for calculating the inscribed workspace and dimensional synthesis considering the inscribed workspace are presented. Thirdly, the distribution of dexterity index on the workspace section and dimensional synthesis considering the reciprocal of condition number is studied. The two dimensional synthesis results are compared at the end of the paper. While the synthesis methodology of the manipulator is studied. It is helpful to improve design efficiency of the 3-DOF parallel manipulator. The quickly design for the manipulator can be performed through the proposed methods of dimensional synthesis.