This is the first year funding of a three year continuing award. Parallel mechanisms offer superior rigidity and load to weight ratio than their serial counterparts. When properly designed, they can even achieve relatively large work space. Some robot and machine designs have taken advantage of this fact, for example, Gough/Stewart Platform, truss robot, hexapod machining center, etc. The goal of this research is to develop a systematic approach to the analysis, synthesis, and control for general parallel robotic systems through the recently developed velocity and force manipulability characterization and metric on manipulability ellipsoids. Particular focus of this research is on the systematic modification of parallel robots and its manipulability through the addition of actuators and/or kinematic constraints. Quantitative measures of compatibility between specified tasks and robot configurations will be developed based on velocity and force manipulability ellipsoids. These performance metrics will be used to guide the design of mechanism modification. An important issue that will be addressed in this research is the translation of the robot task specification to desired manipulability ellipsoid and appropriate ellipsoid metric. As simulation and experimental examples, this research will draw on multiple cooperative manipulators, truss type of parallel mechanisms, and a new parallel machining center developed by the Seoul National University.
