Characterization of Parallel Manipulator Available Wrench Set Facets

Abstract

The available wrench set is the set of wrenches that can be generated at the platform of a parallel manipulator. In a given configuration, this set is known to be a convex polytope and, recently, it has been pointed out that it is in fact a particular type of convex polytope called a zonotope. This paper deals with the case of parallel manipulators having as many or more actuators than degrees of freedom and discusses a characterization of the facets of the available wrench set.