Determination of singularity contours for five-bar planar parallel manipulators

From a design point of view, it is crucial to predict singular configurations of a manipulator in terms of inputs in order to improve the dexterity and workspace of a manipulator. In this paper, we present a simple, yet a systematic appoach to obtain singularity contours for a class of five-bar planar parallel manipulators which are based on five rigid links and five single degree of freedom joints - revolute and prismatic joints. The determinants of the manipulator Jacobian matrices are evaluated in terms of joint inputs for a specified set of geometric parameters, and the contours of the determinants at 0.0 plane which are the singularity contours in joint space are generated for the three types of singularities reported in the literature. The proposed approach/algorithm is simple and systematic, and the resulting equations are easy to solve on a computer. The singularity contours for all the class are presented in order to demonstrate the method. It is concluded that the proposed method is useful in trajectory planning and design of five-bar planar parallel manipulators in order to improve their dexterity and workspace.