Mechanism Design of a Multi-linkage Parallel Hopping Robot with Kinematics Analysis

In this paper, we propose a novel parallel hopping robot based on hopping animals' parallel mechanism, and analyze its kinematics model using different original mathematical methods. We adopt a bionic jumping structure with a multi-bar linkage system, enabling the robot to possess a substantial jumping ability and higher environmental adaptability compared to wheeled robots. Since this hopping robot consists of a three degrees of freedom (3 DOF) parallel linkage system, its potential energy could be magnified to a certain extent. Accordingly, we calculate the DH table in terms of the robot's sketch model, while forward kinematic problem (FKP) and inverse kinematic problem (IKP) are computed with the help of the MATLAB tool. In order to avoid its singularities, we calculate the rotation matrix and the Jacobian matrix. Afterwards, we present the CAD model and simulate the hopping robot's stiffness using finite element analysis (FEA). Finally, a novel algorithm using a ternary array is introduced on MATLAB to analyze the workspace and dynamics model of the hopping robot. As a result, this paper provides several novel analysis methods for analyzing multi-linkage and multi-degree-of-freedom robot systems through mathematical analysis, kinematic analysis and discrete numerical methods, which indicate that this novel 3-DOF parallel hopping robot possesses better adaptability for different terrain with certain hopping abilities. These analysis methods applied to the parallel hopping robot play an indispensable role in the mechanism analysis, kinematic analysis, and workspace analysis of linkage-typed robots such as legged robots.