Dissertation Discovery Company Kinematics of Parallel Manipulators With Ground-mounted Actuators

Abstract: A great deal of research work has been focussed on the theoretical and experimental studies of mechanical manipulators in recent years. Almost all of these works are related to open-loop serial-link mechanisms, but only a few have dealt with multi-degree-of-f reedom parallel manipulators such as the Stewart platform or similar mechanisms . A new type of two-degree-of -freedom Rotary-Linear (R-L) actuator was adapted in this work. Several possible configurations of parallel six-degree-of-f reedom manipulators with ground-mounted actuators have been synthesized. With parallel configuration of the manipulators, the computations can be performed simultaneously. Therefore, the computation time will be significantly reduced. Workspace analysis of a six-degree-of -freedom parallel manipulator has been presented by determining the shapes and boundaries of the subworkspace and root regions in the subworkspace. The workspace of the manipulator is obtained as the common reachable region of the subworkspaces determined by the corresponding subchains. The orientation and the rotatability of the platform are also investigated. Finally, mechanical error analysis of the manipulator, due to the minor inaccuracies in displacements of the actuators, is studied by using the theory of screws. Dissertation Discovery Company and University of Florida are dedicated to making scholarly works more discoverable and accessible throughout the world. This dissertation, "Kinematics of Parallel Manipulators With Ground-mounted Actuators" by Tzu-Chen Weng, was obtained from University of Florida and is being sold with permission from the author. A digital copy of this work may also be found in the university's institutional repository, IR@UF. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation.