Kinematics and Simulation of a 6-Leg, 4-DOF Parallel Manipulator

In the past decades, parallel manipulators have been found in many industrial applications and a number of interesting mechanical devices and design methods have been extensively studied. However, most efforts are dedicated to six degrees of freedom (DOF) or three-DOF manipulators. This paper presents a novel six-leg, four-DOF parallel platform manipulator with base mounted prismatic actuators. The movable platform of the manipulator can translate along two directions and rotate around two axes respectively (2T-2R). The kinematics model is formulated, which describes the inverse and forward kinematics transformation. The singularity analysis of this six-leg, four-DOF parallel manipulator is introduced.