Continuous motion of a novel 3-CRC symmetrical parallel mechanism

Abstract

Parallel mechanisms (PMs) with three degrees of freedom (DOFs) have been studied extensively, especially the PMs with two rotational and one translational DOFs (2R1T PMs). One major problem of the 2R1T PMs is the inherent parasitic motion. In this paper, a novel 2R1T symmetrical parallel mechanism with no parasitic motion is proposed and studied. The moving platform and the base of this mechanism are mirror symmetric with respect to a mid-plane. This moving platform can realize continuous rotation about any axis or any point on the mid-plane and can have continuous translation along the normal line of the mid-plane. The constraint and motion characteristics of this mechanism are analyzed. The kinematics solutions and the Jacobian matrix are derived. The singularities of this PM are discussed. In the end, several numerical examples are given to show the continuous rotations and continuous translations of this PM. This kind of PMs has outstanding advantages of easy path planning and controlling.