FEATURE ARTICLE

Module-based method for design and analysis of reconfigurable parallel robots

  • Fengfeng XI , 1 ,
  • Yuwen LI 1 ,
  • Hongbo WANG 2
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  • 1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada
  • 2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China

Received date: 15 Apr 2010

Accepted date: 01 Sep 2010

Published date: 05 Jun 2011

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

This paper presents a method for the design and analysis of reconfigurable parallel robots. The inherent modularity in a parallel robot lends itself as a natural candidate for reconfiguration. By taking the branches as building blocks, many modular parallel robots can be constructed, from which a reconfigurable parallel robot can be realized. Among three types of reconfigurations, namely, geometry morphing, topology morphing, and group morphing, the method presented here is for the last two reconfigurations, thereby advancing the current research that is mainly limited to geometry morphing. It is shown that the module-based method not only provides a systematic way of designing a reconfigurable parallel robot, but also offers a unified modeling for robot analysis. Two examples are provided, one showing the topology morphing and the other showing the group morphing.

Cite this article

Fengfeng XI , Yuwen LI , Hongbo WANG . Module-based method for design and analysis of reconfigurable parallel robots[J]. Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering, 2011 , 6(2) : 151 -159 . DOI: 10.1007/s11465-011-0121-6

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61075099).
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