FORCE-MOMENT CAPABILITIES OF PLANAR-PARALLEL MANIPULATORS USING DIFFERENT REDUNDANT-ACTUATION CONFIGURATIONS

Abstract

This work investigates the force-moment capabilities of different redundant-actuation configurations for planar-parallel manipulators. A previously developed methodology for determining the force-moment capabilities of redundantly-actuated parallel manipulators using optimization and scaling factors is employed. The preliminary results show that different, symmetric redundant-actuation schemes yield substantial variations in the force-moment capabilities for the three-branch, three-revolute joints per branch (3-RRR) manipulator. Configurations where all base and wrist joints are actuated or all elbow and wrist joints are actuated yielded better force-moment capabilities when compared to the actuation configuration where all base and elbow joints are actuated. The biggest difference in terms of force-moment capabilities was found to be the maximum moment that could be sustained. The actuation configuration where all base and elbow joints were actuated yielded the lowest maximum moment that could be sustained.