Workspace analysis of the ParaDex robot-a novel, closed-chain, kinematically-redundant manipulator

Workspace analysis of a novel manipulator design is presented. The manipulator is a closed-chain design offering high payload, high stiffness and low inertia, but at the expense of limited workspace. A 7 degree-of-freedom is incorporated to help expand the reachable workspace. It is shown that the resulting workspace is complex, but manageable. Methods for fast constraint detection are presented, and techniques for optimizing use of the kinematic redundancy are explained. The result is sufficiently efficient to enable online planning and collision avoidance.