Structural Comparison of In-Parallel Robotic Manipulators on the Basis of Compactness

Multi Degree of Freedom (DOF) planar kinematic chains can be considered for application as parallel robots in view of their greater rigidity. A large number of distinct chains are available with the same number of links and DOF for consideration as parallel structures. Hence, it becomes necessary to know which of these chains more parallel so that the selection of these chains for the specified tasks like workspace and rigidity becomes easy. A simple and logical method is presented in this paper to accomplish the same. The measure of compactness developed in this paper enables comparison of distinct chains for these characteristics