Kinematics analyses of Dodekapod

Dodekapod is a recent development in the area of parallel manipulators. It is a manipulator with 12 degree of freedom proposed as an alternative to six degree of freedom Hexapod, to overcome workspace limitations. This paper deals with the inverse and forward kinematics of Dodekapod. A hierarchical method to solve the kinematics is proposed assuming gripping as an end application. Using this approach, the problem of kinematics can be reduced to that of a general 6–6 Stewart platform for which solutions have been proposed in the past.