On the position kinematic analysis of MaPaMan: a reconfigurable three-degrees-of-freedom spatial parallel manipulator

This paper proposes a new three-degrees-of-freedom spatial parallel manipulator named the Madras Parallel Manipulator (MaPaMan). The manipulator has three identical legs, each of which includes a four-bar mechanism in its architecture. The arrangement of the links is such that with a little effort, the MaPaMan can be reconfigured into two different manipulators. The position kinematic problems for both the manipulators have been formulated and solved. In almost all the cases, the problems are reduced to the solution of univariate polynomials, whose coefficients are computed in closed-form. The formulations are demonstrated via numerical examples. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.