Constraint-Based Analysis of Parallel Kinematic Articulated Wrist Mechanisms

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic constraint-based analysis of the performance attributes of eight parallel kinematic articulated wrist mechanisms from the existing literature. These performance attributes include the number, nature (i.e., pure rotation, or translation, or a combination), and location of a mechanism’s Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) in the nominal and displaced configurations, load transmission capability along these DoFs, and load-bearing capability along the constraint directions. This systematic analysis reveals performance tradeoffs between these performance attributes for a given mechanism as well as design tradeoffs across these mechanisms. This analysis also helps inform the suitability of a given mechanism for specific applications.