Structure performance improvement of parallel mechanisms by optimizing topological configurations

Abstract

This paper deals with structure performance improvement of parallel mechanisms by optimizing topological configurations based coupling-reducing principle. Taking three-translation parallel mechanism 3-R//R//C as the example, a coupling-reducing configuration is designed by only optimizing its branch chain architecture between the moving platform and the static platform without changing the structure of the branch chain itself. This leads that the coupling degree of the configuration is reduced from k = 1 to k = 0. So it is easy to get its forward position kinematics analytical solution. After comparing and analyzing input-output decoupling characteristic, the singularity, workspace, dexterity of the optimization configuration with that of typical configuration, it is found that these performance are obviously better than the typical configuration before optimization. This paper provides an effective method of topology configurations optimization design.