A new approach to orientation workspace analysis of 6-DOF parallel manipulators

This paper presents a new discretization method for the computation of the orientation workspace of 6-DOF parallel manipulators, defined as the set of all attainable orientations of the mobile platform about a fixed point. The method is based on the use of a modified set of Euler angles and a particular representation of the orientation workspace. In addition, the projected orientation workspace is introduced for use in 5-axis applications, defined as the set of possible directions of the approach vector of the mobile platform. Alternative ways of computing these two types of workspaces are also discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.