Implementation and Evaluation of a Three-Legged Six-Degrees-of-Freedom Parallel Mechanism as an Impedance-Type Haptic Device

The Monash Epicyclic Parallel Manipulator (MEPaM) is a three-legged six-degrees-of-freedom (dof) parallel mechanism with base mounted actuators. Due to the architecture of MEPaM, a closed form solution to the direct geometric problem was obtained. The concepts of Z-Width and transparency were used to analyze the performance of MEPaM as a haptic device. It was found that the Z-Width is superior to two out of three commercially available six-dof haptic devices. Closed-loop control was found to provide the most transparent interaction.