An Analysis of the Force-Moment Capabilities of Branch-Redundant Planar-Parallel Manipulators

The force-moment capabilities of branch-redundant planar-parallel manipulators (PPMs) are investigated. A previously developed explicit methodology for generating the force-moment capabilities of redundant PPMs is used on three different PPM architectures. The results for the 4-R RR, 4-R PR, 4-P RR layouts (where the underline denotes the actuated joint in each branch) are presented and discussed. For the revolute-actuated layouts, it was shown that the force-moment capabilities for the 4-R RR were in general better than those of the 4-R PR for the chosen manipulator parameters. The presented analysis is an effective tool for designing PPMs to determine the largest forces and moments that can be applied at any point within the workspace.Copyright © 2007 by ASME