In the neighborhood of a singularity a parallel manipulator becomes uncontrollable due to actuator saturation. Therefore it is important to know where all singularities of such a manipulator are. This paper presents a new and geometric approach to compute the singularities of all spatial Stewart-Gough platform manipulators which have anchor points of base and platform in planes. It is shown that these manipulators have a geometrically exceptional home pose and it is described how singularity free regions can be found. The developed methods are used to evaluate the singularity free orientation capability of a manipulator along any prescribed trajectory.
Volume Subject Area:
Mechanisms and Robotics
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Copyright © 2002
by ASME
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