STUDY ON THE KINEMATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF 3 DOF IN-PARALLEL ACTUATED PLATFORM MECHANISMS

This paper presents a simple method based on the screw theory for dete rmination of the possible motion characteristics for constrained 3 deg ree-of-freedom (DOF) parallel mechanisms when the linear displacements of the platform are restricted. The theory is significant for underst anding novel constrained multi-DOF mechanisms, their inverse kinematic s and robot path planning. The paper firstly discusses theoretically t he relationship between the reciprocal screws and the motions of the m echanisms, then presents the analysis of the kinematic characteristics of several 3 DOF in-parallel actuated mechanisms. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd