A numerical method for the determination of dextrous workspaces of Gough-Stewart platforms

An optimization approach to the computation of the boundaries of different dextrous workspaces of parallel manipulators is presented. A specific dextr ous workspace is the region in space in which, at each position of the work ing point, a manipulator can control the orientation of its upper working p latform through a specified range of orientation angles. Here the dextrous workspace is determined from the intersection of suitably chosen fixed orie ntation workspaces, which are found by application of a constrained optimiz ation algorithm. The procedure is simple and has the considerable advantage that it may easily be automated. The method is illustrated by its applicat ion to both a planar and spatial Gough-Stewart platform. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.