We present a kinematic design of a translational parallel manipulator with fine adjustment capability of platform orientation. In order to clarify possible kinematic structures for it, structural synthesis of fully decoupled mechanism and partially decoupled mechanism both with six degrees of freedom (dof) was carried out based on the synthesis results of translational and rotational parallel mechanisms with three dof. All possible kinematic structures were obtained. Of these, one partially decoupled mechanism was selected and a kinematic design of a prototype manipulator was done. Its characteristics in terms of workspace, singularity, orientation adjustment capability, and coupling characteristics between translational and rotational displacement were discussed with experimental results regarding fine adjustment capability of platform orientation. 1. Introduction A parallel manipulator that has three degrees of freedom (dof) and outputs translational motion without changing its orientation is called a “translational parallel manipulator.” A translational parallel manipulator has potential for use in assembly, machining, and coordinate measurements. The manipulator is composed of a base, platform, and multiple connecting chains arranged in parallel between the base and platform. Many researchers in recent years have shown interest in translational parallel manipulators and mechanisms. The kinematic conditions for the connecting chain to obtain translational motion of the platform have been investigated [1, 2]. Various kinematic structures for translational parallel manipulators have also been investigated [3, 4]. Further, optimization taking into consideration the manipulator’s workspace has been done [5–7]. Translational parallel mechanisms have been applied to medical robots [8] and micromanipulators [9]. The errors in the output pose of a manipulator caused by dimensional errors, such as these in links, can be classified into two groups. The first group contains errors that can be compensated for by calibration or full closed-loop control. Such errors are called “compensatable errors” [10, 11]. The tolerance requirements with respect to these compensatable errors depend on calibration or the performance of the controller, and these are not usually severe. The second group contains errors that cannot be compensated for by any means, either during or prior to manipulation. Such errors are called “uncompensatable errors” [10, 11]. They depend on kinematic structures and parameters and tolerances. In designing and controlling a lower-dof parallel
D. Kim and W. K. Chung, “Kinematic condition analysis of three-dof pure translational parallel manipulators,” Journal of Mechanical Design, vol. 125, no. 2, pp. 323–331, 2003.
X. Kong and C. M. Gosselin, “Type synthesis of 3-dof translational parallel manipulators based on screw theory,” Journal of Mechanical Design, vol. 126, no. 1, pp. 83–92, 2004.
D. Chablat and P. Wenger, “Architecture optimization of a 3-dof translational parallel mechanism for machining applications, the orthoglide,” IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 403–410, 2003.
Y. Li and Q. Xu, “A new approach to the architecture optimization of a general 3-PUU translational parallel manipulator,” Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 59–72, 2006.
M. Tanabe, Y. Takeda, and S. Huda, “Utility workspace of 3-5R translational parallel mechanism,” Journal of Advanced Mechanical Design, Systems, and Manufacturing, vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 998–1010, 2008.
Y. Li and Q. Xu, “Design and development of a medical parallel robot for cardiopulmonary resuscitation,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 265–273, 2007.
T. Tanikawa, M. Ukiana, K. Morita, et al., “Design of 3dof parallel mechanism with thin plate for micro finger module in micro manipulation,” in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS '02), vol. 2, pp. 1778–1783, 2002.
T. Huang, G. Tang, S. Li, Y. Li, G. D. Chetwynd, and J. D. Whitehouse, “Kinematic calibration of a class of parallel kinematic machines (PKM) with fewer than six degrees of freedom,” Science in China, vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 515–526, 2003.
S. Syamsul and Y. Takeda, “Kinematic design of 3-URU pure rotational parallel mechanism with consideration of uncompensatable error,” Journal of Advanced Mechanical Design, Systems, and Manufacturing, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 874–886, 2008.
C. Innocenti and V. Parenti-Castelli, “Direct kinematics of the 6–4 fully parallel manipulator with position and orientation uncoupled,” in Proceedings of the European Robotics and Intelligent Systems Conference (EURISCON '91), pp. 3–10, Corfu, Greece, June 1991.
S. Patarinski and M. Uchiyama, “Position/orientation decoupled parallel manipulators,” in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR '93), pp. 153–158, 1993.
Z. J. Geng and L. A. Haynes, “A “3-2-1” kinematic configuration of a Stewart platform and its application to six degree of freedom pose measurements,” Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 23–34, 1994.
D. Bernier, J. M. Castelain, and X. Li, “A new parallel structure with six degrees of freedom,” in Proceedings of the 9th World Congress on the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms (IFToMM '95), pp. 8–12, Milan, Italy, 1995.
K. Mianovski, “Dextrous fully parallel manipulator with six degrees of freedom,” in Proceedings of the 12th CISM-IFToMM Symposium on Theory and Practice of Robots and Manipulators (RoManSy '98), pp. 253–260, Paris, France, 1998.
Y. Takeda, K. Kamiyama, Y. Maki, M. Higuchi, and K. Sugimoto, “Development of position-orientation decoupled spatial in-parallel actuated mechanisms with six degrees of freedom,” Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 59–62, 2005.
Y. Jin, I.-M. Chen, and G. Yang, “Kinematic design of a 6-dof parallel manipulator with decoupled translation and rotation,” IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 545–551, 2006.
X. Kong and C. M. Gosselin, “Type synthesis of 3-dof spherical parallel manipulators based on screw theory,” Journal of Mechanical Design, vol. 126, no. 1, pp. 101–108, 2004.
Y. Fang and L.-W. Tsai, “Structure synthesis of a class of 3-dof rotational parallel manipulators,” IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 117–121, 2004.
D. C. H. Yang and Y. Y. Lin, “Pantograph mechanism as a non-traditional manipulator structure,” Mechanism and Machine Theory, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 115–122, 1985.
