A Novel Five-Degree-of-Freedom Parallel Manipulator and Its Kinematic Optimization

Driven by requirements of five-axis numerical control (NC) machine for its executive mechanism, this paper creatively proposes a flow path to synthesize a novel class of n-degree-of-freedom (n-DoF, 4 <= n <= 6) parallel manipulators (PMs) resorting to four steps, and takes a patented 5-DoF PM, named T5, for example to demonstrate the flow path in depth. Comparing with existing five-axis executive mechanisms, this novel class of the PMs has some advantages of light end-effector, good static, dynamic performance, and so on. Upon the underlying architecture of T5, the kinematic analysis and optimal design are carried out for the first time, in which two essential procedures are involved, one is the kinematic performance index by means of the reciprocal product associated with the wrench screw and twist screw with specific physical meaning, the other is the design method adopted to perform the multi-objective dimensional synthesis using an artificial intelligence approach, that is nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II). This paper is aimed at laying a solid theoretical and technical foundation for the prototype design and manufacture of T5 PM.