Design of a reconfigurable planar parallel manipulator

This work presents the design of a reconfigurable planar parallel manipulator (RPPM). The RPPM is designed to act as a testbed manipulator for theories on redundant actuation of parallel manipulators and can reconfigure into three different revolute‐jointed mechanism types: a 2‐branch 2‐DOF (degree‐of‐freedom) 5‐bar mechanism; a 2‐branch 3‐DOF 6‐bar mechanism; and a 3‐branch 3‐DOF 8‐bar mechanism. The design of the RPPM allows for any shoulder or elbow joint to be actuated. In this work, the criteria and constraints of the design are presented. The final design of the RPPM is shown, followed by a discussion of the final design and how it relates to the initial design criteria and constraints. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.