On the optimum design of planar 3-DOF parallel manipulators with respect to the workspace

The design of the robotic mechanisms is one of the most important activities, because these mechanisms determine the performance characteristics of the robots. The paper concerns the issue of computer-aided design (CAD) for planar 3-DOF parallel robotic mechanisms by means of the physical model of the solution space, which can be used systematically to express the relationships between the performance criteria and all link lengths of one type of the robotic mechanism. The performance atlases of the workspace volume for the manipulators are plotted in the physical model of the solution space. The characteristics of the distribution of the workspace shapes in the physical model of the solution space are presented. The results are useful for the optimum design of the robotic mechanisms. The paper proposes a new way for the robotic CAD.