Interior singularity analysis for a 2(3HUS+S) parallel manipulator with descending matrix rank method

Abstract

Singularity analysis is one of the basic problems for parallel manipulators. When a manipulator moves in a singular configuration, the motion and transmission performance are poor. In certain serious cases, the normal operation could be damaged. Based on the topology structure and kinematics analysis of a 2(3HUS+S) parallel manipulator, the Jacobian matrices were established. Then, the singular locus surface was obtained by numerical simulation. In addition, the relationship between the motion path curve and the singular locus surface was analyzed. In this study, α, β, and γ are the attitude angles that describe the motion of moving platforms. There is a nonsingular attitude space in singular locus surfaces, and the singular locus surface is a single surface in a small attitude angle range. The nonsingular attitude space increases as the absolute value of γ increases, and singularity could be avoided when γ is large. Furthermore, the motion path curve passes through the singular locus surface two times, and the two intersection points are consistent with the positions where the motion dexterity is equal to zero. This study provides new insights on the singularity analysis of parallel manipulators, particularly for the structure parameter optimization of the nonsingular attitude space.