Type synthesis and kinematic analysis of translational parallel manipulators

This thesis treats type synthesis and kinematic analysis of translational parallel manipulators (TPMs) from a group theoretical point of view.;For the kinematic analysis of symmetrical TPMs, geometric elements are employed to denote the workspace of different leg links. Solutions of the inverse and direct kinematics of a certain example are obtained. Moreover, the proposed approach is applied to a class of TPMs, and the corresponding geometric representations are listed. The applicability of the proposed approach is discussed as well.;This thesis provides a theoretical approach to design TPMs and analyze their kinematics for practical applications.;For the TPM type synthesis, based on displacement group theory (DGT), TPM leg motion is represented by a series of displacement subgroups. For symmetrical three-legged TPMs, three categories are classified and a total of 90 architectures are proposed. For asymmetrical three-legged TPMs, 13 cases of possible leg combinations are presented and some possible constructions of TPMs are shown. The advantages of DGT in mechanism synthesis are described.