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This paper unifies the approaches of kinematic and static modelling, and singularity analysis for tendon-driven parallel continuum robots under constant curvature as well as pseudo-rigid-body assumptions with those implemented in conventional rigid parallel robots. Constraint conditions are determined for the legs of this type of parallel continuum robots, based on which the velocity equations and Jacobian matrices are derived. These are further exploited for inverse kinematic and singularity analysis. Static models for the robot as well as for each of the continuum links under pseudo-rigid-body assumption are derived. Finally, a simulation example is given to validate the kinematic models. It is shown that singularities can be determined using Grassmann line geometry or by detecting the numerical values of three performance indices.

This paper focuses on the forward kinematic analysis of (6 + 3)-degree-of-freedom kinematically redundant hybrid parallel robots. Because all of the singularities are avoidable, the robot can cover a very large orientational workspace. The control of the robot requires the solution of the direct kinematic problem using the actuator encoder data as inputs. Seven different approaches of solving the forward kinematic problem based on different numbers of extra encoders are developed. It is revealed that five of these methods can produce a unique solution analytically or numerically. An example is given to validate the feasibility of these approaches. One of the provided approaches is applied to the real-time control of a prototype of the robot. It is also revealed that the proposed approaches can be applied to other kinematically redundant hybrid parallel robots proposed by the authors.

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SUMMARYForce control is important in robotics research for safe operation in the interaction between a manipulator and a human operator. The elasticity center is a very important characteristic for controlling the force of a manipulator, because a force acting at the elasticity center results in a pure displacement of the end-effector in the same direction as the force. Similarly, a torque acting at the elasticity center results in a pure rotation of the end-effector in the same direction as the torque. A stiffness synthesis strategy is proposed for a desired elasticity center for three-degree-of-freedom (DOF) planar parallel mechanisms (PPM) consisting of three revolute-prismatic-revolute (3RPR) links. Based on stiffness analysis, the elasticity center is derived to have a diagonal stiffness matrix in an arbitrary configuration. The stiffness synthesis is defined to determine the configuration when the elasticity center and the diagonal matrix are given. The seven nonlinear system equations are solved based on one reference input. The existence and the solvability of the nonlinear system equations were analyzed using reduced Gröbner bases. A numerical example is presented to validate the method.