Optimal design of a linkage-cam mechanism-based redundantly actuated parallel manipulator

A redundantly actuated parallel manipulator (RAPM) with mixed translational and rotational degrees of freedom (DOFs) is challenged for its dimensionally homogeneous Jacobian modeling and optimal design of architecture. In this paper, a means to achieve redundant actuation by adding kinematic constraints is introduced, which reduces the DOFs of the end-effector (EE). A generic dimensionally homogeneous Jacobian is developed for this type of RAPMs, which maps the generalized velocities of three points on the EE to the joint velocities. A new optimization algorithm derived from this dimensionally homogeneous Jacobian is proposed for the optimal design of this type of RAPMs. As an example, this paper presents a spatial RAPM involving linkages and cam mechanisms. This RAPM has 4 DOFs and 6 translational actuations. The linkage lengths and the position of the universal joints of the RAPM are optimized based on the dimensionally homogeneous Jacobian.