Kinematic analysis of a novel 2-PrRS-PR(P)S metamorphic parallel mechanism

摘要

Lower mobility parallel mechanisms have been developed in different structures and widely applied in industry, but still have disadvantages in various tasks and functional requirements. A 2-PrRS-PR(P)S metamorphic parallel mechanism with two working configurations and a transiting configuration is presented. First, the architecture and the way of metamorphosis about the mechanism are described in detail. The mobility of the metamorphic parallel mechanism is obtained with screw theory. Furthermore, the parasitic motions in different configurations are derived based on the geometry constraint conditions. Both the inverse kinematic problem and forward kinematic problem of the mechanism are investigated by the closed-loop equation and validated via numerical examples. Then, the velocity and acceleration in two working configurations are obtained by the derivation of the inverse kinematic problem. Finally, the reachable orientation workspaces are discussed using the three-dimensional search method in different configurations. A comparison with the 3-PRS PM without metamorphic mechanism in workspace is presented and an example of the metamorphic parallel mechanism in robotic supporting leg is presented. The above analyses provide theoretical foundations for application of this mechanism.