Abstract
This paper presents a systematic constraint-based analysis of the motion attributes of six parallel kinematic articulated wrist mechanisms from the existing literature. These motion attributes include the number, nature (i.e. pure rotation, or translation, or a combination), and location of mechanism’s Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) in the nominal and displaced configurations, range of operation along these DoFs, load transmission capability along these DoFs, and load bearing capability along the constraint directions. This systematic analysis reveals performance tradeoffs between these motion attributes for a given mechanism, as well as design tradeoffs across these multiple mechanisms with respect to these motion attributes. This analysis should help inform the suitability of a given mechanism for specific applications.
