Feasibility Study of a Platform Type of Robotic Manipulators from a Kinematic Viewpoint

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical investigation on the feasibility of using a platform mechanism as a robotic manipulator. The existence of this type of closed-loop kinematic chain is first investigated via a kinematic number synthesis. A displacement analysis then follows, which gives inverse control equations in terms of motion and design parameters, using the [4 × 4] matrix method. Basic kinematic characteristics and limitations, such as the extreme ranges of motion and rotatability as well as workspace are investigated.