Structure and kinematic analysis of a novel 2-DOF translational parallel robot

This paper addresses the analysis of a novel parallel robot with 2 translational degrees of freedom (DOFs). The robot can position a rigid body in a plane with constant orientation. The kinematic structure of the robot is first described in detail. Some kinematic problems, such as the inverse and forward kinematics, velocity, and singularity are then analyzed. The working and assembly modes are discussed. Since it is the most important index to design a robot, the workspace of the robot is studied systematically in this paper. Based on the analysis of reachable workspace and singularity, a kind of workspace concept characterizing the region that the end-effector of the robot can reach in practice is defined. The results of this paper will be very useful for the design and application of the robot.