Mechanical Design and Analysis of a Novel Group of Spatial Parallel Manipulators With Single Closed Loop

Abstract This research presents a novel two-chain parallel structure with symmetrical features. This parallel structure with eight revolute joints owns infinite bifurcation points and it has a large translational workspace and orientational workspace. A family of equivalent eight-bar parallel manipulator variants is proposed, together with two families of parallel manipulators with reduced mobility. Both the direct and inverse kinematic problems are solved for two motion modes of the selected parallel architecture. The singularity-free reachable workspace and dexterity distribution are investigated. Its large deploy/fold ratio is calculated through a new generic formula and compared with other deployable modules owning planar/spatial motions. Two potential industrial applications are developed by virtue of their superior features.