Characteristic Analysis of Bioinspired Pod Structure Robotic Configurations

The paper explains the utility of pod-like parallel structures in locomotion of bioinspired robots and motion platforms. Parallel robots are characterized by few performance measures which include workspace size, dexterity, orientation space limits and existence of singular regions. Conventionally, the parallel robots are six-legged, hexapods, but other configurations of parallel robots involve variation in the number of limbs and type of joints. The computation of performance measures of different geometries using a single algorithm is a challenging task. In this attempt, an algorithm is developed for the analysis of some of the performance measures like workspace, orientation space and dexterity of selected manipulators. The results show that the dexterous workspace found is always a subspace within the total workspace envelope. Moreover, the computational test for the task space mobility search is found to be a useful tool for parallel robot designing.