Research on full reachable workspace of the parallel 6-DOF platform

The full reachable workspace of the parallel 6-DOF simulating platform was researched. At first, Cylinders' changes when the position or poses of the upper plate were changed and tire relations between the cylinder's changes and the full reachable workspace were analyzed. Based on the above analyses, a fast six-dimension searching algorithm based on the movements' characters was presented. In the algorithm, the searching is confined to the space which is close to the external contour of the full workspace and the searching start point of the external contour is quickly found by deducing the expressions of the cylinders' displacements when the polar angle is equal to zero, by using both of the above methods, the searching space is decreased, the searching efficiency is improved, and the enveloping surface of the upper plate' s limit position is quickly searched out. Then take the 6-DOF platform in Zhejiang University for example, the full reachable workspace was searched out and plotted. At last, the relations between the full reachable workspace and the structure parameters were simulated, and the simulating results provided the references for the design of the platform.