THE ISOTROPIC DESIGN OF 2 GENERAL CLASSES OF PLANAR PARALLEL MANIPULATORS

Manipulator designs with isotropic architectures have a number of adva ntages, including high servo accuracy and dexterity. Using the isotrop y criterion, isotropic designs of two general classes of planar, three -degree-of-freedom, parallel manipulators with three legs are produced . One of these classes comprises 20 manipulators, while the other, 4. As special cases for each class, the complete set of isotropic designs of 2 manipulators is found. The parameter space of isotropic design o f these manipulators is a continuum of at least one dimension. (C) 199 5 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.