Workspace of parallel manipulators with symmetric identical kinematic chains

In this paper, we propound an analogous symmetric theorem of workspace for spatial parallel manipulators with identical kinematic chains, and then present a strict mathematic proof by splitting the problem into planar symmetry, rotational axis symmetry and point symmetry (centrosymmetry). Examples demonstrate that this theorem can be utilized to investigate the geometry shapes of the workspace and to guide the conceptual design of spatial parallel manipulators, especially for those complicated spatial parallel manipulators with full degrees of freedom (DoF). The theorem offers a concrete safeguard for the workspace analysis of any symmetric spatial parallel manipulators. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.