Analysis and design criteria for a redundantly actuated 4-legged six degree-of-freedom parallel manipulator

This work introduces a new architecture for a parallel, six degree of freedom manipulator. The kinematic analysis of this redundant manipulator is provided. The proposed parallel mechanism allows easy implementation of redundant actuators, and has relatively large workspace in comparison to conventional six degree of freedom parallel devices. The kinematic analysis performed forms the basis for the introduction of design criteria for the manipulator. Several design criteria are introduced and their use is illustrated by example design involving an initial geometric parameter analysis of the manipulator.