A Geometric Approach to Obtain the Closed-Form Forward Kinematics of H4 Parallel Robot

To obtain the closed-form forward kinematics of parallel robots, researchers use algebra-based method to transform and simplify the constraint equations. However, this method requires a complicated derivation that leads to high-order univariate variable equations. In fact, some particular mechanisms, such as Delta, or H4 possess many invariant geometric properties during movement. This suggests that one might be able to transform and reduce the problem using geometric approaches. Therefore, a simpler and more efficient solution might be found. Based on this idea, we developed a new geometric approach called geometric forward kinematics (GFK) to obtain the closed-form solutions of H4 forward kinematics in this paper. The result shows that the forward kinematics of H4 yields an eighth degree univariate polynomial, compared with earlier reported 16th degree. Thanks to its clear physical meaning, an intensive discussion about the solutions is presented. Results indicate that a general H4 robot can have up to eight nonrepeated real solutions for its forward kinematics. For a specific configuration of H4, the nonrepeated number of real roots could be restricted to only two, four, or six. Two traveling plate configurations are discussed in this paper as two typical categories of H4. A numerical analysis was also performed for this new method. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4040703]