Path Planning of Parallel Manipulators

Parallel manipulator is a mechanical system which is able to provide a high rigidity with a small mass of the manipulator. This allows high precision and high speed of movements, and motivates the use of parallel manipulators in more areas. However, the workspace of parallel manipulator is limited by the geometrical and mechanical limits of design. The workspace is also limited by the existence of singularities, which are positions where the parallel manipulator might lose control.

The aim of this project is to maximize the reachable singularity-free workspace of the parallel manipulator, and make the path planning algorithm fast and accurate enough for real-time application without any significant performance loss. Also, we are trying to make the path planning methods more general to apply into many other parallel manipulators.