New method for kinematic analysis of a hybrid manipulator

This paper presents a new method to analyze the kinematics of a widely-used commercial hybrid manipulator IRB260 from the ABB Company. This manipulator includes two parallel four-bar mechanisms that make the kinematics and dynamic analysis complicated. In this paper, the rigorous analytical method is totally based on the exponential coordinate description and the screw theory. This method has created the virtual open-chain manipulator that is equivalent to the hybrid manipulator. Then the kinematics can be solved using the routine steps for the virtual open-chain manipulators. The simulation results show that this new method results in the correct kinematics of this hybrid manipulator.