Automatic generation of the kinematic scheme for hybrid serial-parallel types of robots

A strategy for automatically generating the kinematic scheme of a hybrid serial-parallel type of robots is presented in this report. In which, a fundamental scheme with pure serial-links is firstly generated analytically, which can meet all of the functional requirements, and kinds of extended schemes are then generated through fuzzy reasoning on the basis of these prototypes. Then, according to other technological specifications for the robot and the substitution rule for serial and parallel driving mechanisms, some of the degrees-of-freedom with serial types can be equivalently substituted by paralleled ones, and the final scheme combined with both the merits of serial-linked and parallel-linked mechanisms is finally generated. With the presented method, a hybrid serial-parallel type of machining robot with 6 DOF is designed and fabricated with one of the generated schemes.