Determination of the Workspace of 6-DOF Parallel Manipulators

Abstract

This paper presents an algorithm for the determination of the workspace of parallel manipulators. The method described here, which is based on geometrical properties of the workspace, leads to a simple graphical representation of the regions of the three-dimensional Cartesian space that are attainable by the manipulator with a given orientation of the platform. Moreover, the volume of the workspace can be easily computed by performing an integration in its boundary, which is obtained from the algorithm. Examples are included to illustrate the application of the method to a six-degree-of-freedom fully parallel manipulator.