Kinematically Redundant Planar Parallel Mechanisms for Optimal Singularity Avoidance

A parallel mechanism possesses several advantages compared to a similar-sized serial mechanism, including the potential for higher accuracy and reduced moving mass, the latter enabling increased load capacity and higher acceleration. One of the most important issues affecting a parallel mechanism is the potential of parallel singularities. Such configurations strongly affect the performance of a parallel mechanism, both in the actual singularity and in its vicinity. For example, both the stiffness of a mechanism and the efficiency of the power transmission to the tool platform are related to the closeness to singular configurations. A mechanism with a mobility larger than the mobility of its tool platform is referred to as a kinematically redundant mechanism. It is well known that introducing kinematic redundancy enables a mechanism to avoid singular configurations. In this paper, three novel kinematically redundant planar parallel mechanisms are proposed. All three mechanisms provide planar translations of the tool platform in two degrees-of-freedom, in addition to infinite rotation of the platform around an axis normal to the plane of the translations. The unique feature of the proposed mechanisms is that, with the appropriate inverse kinematics solutions, all configurations in the entire workspace feature optimal singularity avoidance. It is demonstrated how it is sufficient to employ five actuators to achieve this purpose. In addition, it is shown how including more than five actuators significantly reduces the required actuator motions for identical motions of the tool platform, thereby reducing the cycle times for typical applications.