Kinematics and workspace analysis of a novel parallel mechanism with kinematic redundancy

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel kinematically redundant parallel mechanism categorized as 3-PRPR type. The structure of the proposed mechanism is elaborated and its kinematics is studied. The constant orientation and the reachable workspace of the mechanism are studied and it is shown that the workspace of the mentioned mechanism in comparison with the counterpart non-redundant mechanism is increased, considerably. Also, the effect of base radius and end effector's dimension on the both type of mechanisms workspace is studied.