Performance Mapping and Motion Simulation of a 4UPS+PU Redundantly Actuated Parallel Manipulator

In this paper, a new 4UP S+PU redundantly actuated parallel manipulator is proposed. This mechanism possesses three degrees of freedom (DOF), one translation and two rotations. Different from general parallel manipulators, a passive leg is connected to both centers of the base and the moving platform to constrain the unwanted motion. The mobility study and inverse kinematic analysis are conducted. The reachable workspace is generated with boundary-searching based discretization method. The local and global performance indices including stiffness and dexterity and their atlas are investigated in details. Comprehensive simulation of kinematics, dynamics and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) position control are implemented based on Adams to evaluate and testify the high operational capacity and well motion characteristics.Copyright © 2010 by ASME