Reverse Kinematic Analysis of the Spatial Six Axis Robotic Manipulator With Consecutive Joint Axes Parallel

Abstract

This paper introduces a reconfigurable one degree-of-freedom spatial mechanism that can be applied to repetitive motion tasks. The concept is to incorporate five pairs of noncircular gears into a six degree-of-freedom closed-loop spatial chain. The gear pairs are designed based on the given mechanism parameters and the user defined motion specification of a coupler link of the mechanism. It is shown in the paper that planar gear pairs can be used if the spatial closed-loop chain is comprised of six pairs of parallel joint axes, i.e. the first joint axis is parallel to the second, the third is parallel to the fourth, …, and the eleventh is parallel to the twelfth. This paper presents the detailed reverse kinematic analysis of this specific geometry. A numerical example is presented.