Eclipse II: a new parallel mechanism enabling continuous 360-degree spinning plus three-axis translational motions

This paper presents the Eclipse II, a new six-degrees-of-freedom parallel mechanism, which can be used as a basis for general motion simulators. The Eclipse II is capable of x, y, and z axes translations, and a, b, and c axes rotations. In particular, it has the advantage of enabling continuous 360/spl deg/ spinning of the platform. We first describe the computational procedures for the forward and inverse kinematics of the Eclipse II. Next, the complete singularity analysis is presented for the two cases of end-effector singularity and actuator singularity. Finally, two additional actuators are added to the original mechanism to eliminate both types of singularity within the workspace.