This paper examines the kinematics of parallel linkage arrangement referred to as a tripod. The mechanism has 6 degrees of freedom and is isomorphic to a 6-3 Stewart platform. A practical and fast forward kinematics solution is given, based on mapping to the 6-3 Stewart platform, and has been implemented on a prototype platform in both Python and Matlab. The platform is designed for a set of Kirkpatrick-Baez X-ray mirrors and the results show that an accuracy of the order of tens of nanometres is possible.

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