A Methodology for Determining the Reachable and Dexterous Workspace of Parallel Manipulators

A methodology is proposed for determining the reachable and dexterous workspace of parallel manipulators. The determination of two types of workspace is utmost important in optimal design and comparing performances of the manipulators because each configuration or point in this region has specified kinematic dexterity by designer. The method is based on a stratified workspace boundary search technique, which is referred to as stratified workspace boundary determining methodology (SWBDM), and considers the various physical and contrived constraints. After the two similar problems of the determination of two types of workspace boundaries were defined, we propose a unified method to solve these problems. The validity and efficiency of the proposed method are verified with two kinds of representative parallel manipulators, since their relational results were studied in literatures. Finally, we conclude some advantages of the proposed methodology by comparing with other methods.