A new class of reconfigurable parallel kinematic machines

The article presents a class of reconfigurable modular parallel robots stemming from the 3-CPS under-actuated topology. Proposed here is a conceptual design where the spherical joint which connects each leg to the end-effector is realized as a combination of revolute pairs; a locking system allows one to alternatively fix one of the revolute joints, giving the machine different 3-CPU kinematic configurations which correspond to different types of mobility. The first part of the paper demonstrates that the robot is able to perform different types of motion, specifically of pure translation and pure rotation; in the last part a sample design of the reconfigurable robot is proposed. �� 2014 Elsevier Ltd