Workspace Investigation of a Novel Parallel Manipulator

The manipulator workspace denotes the work area of a manipulator and it is an important foundation of designing a robot. The workspace of a novel symmetrical 4-DOF 3-RRUR parallel manipulator is researched here based on the inverse solution. Five essential conditions of a point within the workspace of the manipulator are presented and the cause of the existence of each condition is given. According to the characteristics of this parallel mechanism and the geometrics, and based on the inverse kinematical solution of the mechanism, the reachable workspace under the five conditions is ascertained. The three-dimensional graph and its section graphs of the workspace are obtained. The thoroughness of the workspace of the manipulator is proved. The mechanism with the advantages of simple symmetric structure and large stiffness can be applied to the developments of four-dimensional force sensors, NC positioning platforms, parallel machine tools and micro-positional parallel manipulators. This work is with great significance to the practical application of the manipulator.