Approximate synthesis of planar Cartesian manipulators with parallel structures

The systematical approach for approximate designing of Cartesian manipulators is described. As opposed to the traditional manipulators based on Pantograph mechanism, alternative kinematic diagrams of 7-link Cartesian manipulators are proposed: one built of revolute joints only while another ones are actuated by swinging cylinders. The design is carried out applying both structural and design-error based approximation techniques. Moreover, the results obtained by least-square and Chebyshev approximation are presented. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.