FORCE ISOTROPY OF THREE-LIMB SPATIAL PARALLEL MANIPULATOR

One of the criteria in optimal robot design is that the robot can achieve isotropic configurations i.e. configurations where the condition number of its Jacobian matrix equals one. At these configurations, the likelihood of error is equal in all directions and equal forces may be exerted in all directions. A three-limb spatial parallel manipulator with two identical limbs is considered in the present paper. Nearly isotropic configurations are identified by using the condition number concept. A MATLAB code is developed and used for the analysis. The results are graphically presented.