Proceedings of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C - Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science-2014-Qu-0954406214525366

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DOI: 10.1177/0954406214525366
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published Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science
Haibo Qu, Yuefa Fang, Sheng Guo and Wei Ye
A novel 4-UPU translational parallel mechanism with fault-tolerant configurations
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Original Article
A novel 4-UPU translational parallel
mechanism with fault-tolerant
configurations
Haibo Qu, Yuefa Fang, Sheng Guo and Wei Ye
Abstract
This paper aims at designing a pure translational parallel mechanism constructed by UPU (universal-prismatic-universal
joint) kinematic limbs. First, the typical problem of unexpected rotations is pointed out from analyzing the typical 3-UPU
parallel mechanism, and the reason for unexpected rotations of parallel mechanism constructed by UPU kinematic limbs
is analyzed. Then, in order to design a pure translational parallel mechanism constructed by UPU without the unexpected
rotations, the 2-UPU single loop is chosen as the basic structure to construct the 4-UPU translational parallel mech-
anism. Each 2-UPU single loop can be used to constrain a rotation about an axis of the linear complexes, which defined
the unexpected rotations. Therefore, a novel type of 4-UPU pure translational parallel mechanism with redundant
actuations is proposed. Since the existence of redundantly actuated kinematic limb, this proposed parallel mechanism
possesses analytical forward kinematics, and its singularity can be avoided completely. Finally, the workspace and fault-
tolerant performance are analyzed. When the proposed 4-UPU parallel mechanism is located in a fault-tolerant config-
uration, the moving platform can still possess movable ability to realize the given task even if one kinematic limb is in
locked-joint failure mode, and the fault-tolerant workspace is obtained.
Keywords
Parallel mechanism, redundant actuations, unexpected rotations, fault-tolerant
Date received: 11 October 2013; accepted: 31 January 2014
Introduction
Since some potential industrial applications, such as
pick-and-place, machining operations and so on, the
pure translational parallel mechanisms with three
degrees of freedom (DOF) have attracted much atten-
tion. Many researchers have studied the 3-DOF transla-
tional parallel mechanisms using dierent theory, such
as Clavel,
1
Herve and Sparacino,
2
Tsai,
3,4
Carricato and
Parenti-Castelli,
5,6
Kong and Gosselin,
7
Gogu,
8,9
Huang
and Li,
10
Jin and Yang,
11
Liu et al.,
12
and Yu et al.
13,14
Among these mechanisms, the most popular transla-
tional parallel mechanism is the Delta robot designed
by Clavel
1
based on the parallelogram structure.
In addition, one translational mechanism that has
attracted a lot of academic interest is the 3-UPU (uni-
versal-prismatic-universal joint) parallel mechanism
proposed by Tsai.
3
After that, Joshi and Tsai
1517
carried out an extensive study of this robot, and
Gregorio and Parenti-Castelli
18
performed the mobil-
ity analysis of the 3-UPU parallel manipulator
assembled for obtaining a pure translation
motion, respectively, and discussed the singularity
congurations. However, the unexpected rotations
were observed in a manufactured prototype of
3-UPU parallel mechanism at Seoul National
University (SNU). There occurred unexpected large
rotations of the moving platform, even the three pris-
matic joints are locked and the mechanism seemed to
collapse under its weight.
Many researchers tried to explain the unexpected
rotations. Han et al.
19
proved that this SNU 3-UPU
parallel mechanism is very sensitive to manufacturing
tolerance clearance. Zlatanov et al.
20,21
pointed that
the singularities of this SUN parallel mechanism
belong to constraint singularity, i.e. the screw
system formed by the constraint wrenches in all legs
loses rank. Wolf and Shoham
22,23
investigated the
School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Robotics
Institute, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
Corresponding author:
Haibo Qu, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering,
Robotics Institute, Beijing Jiaotong University, No.3 Shang Yuan Cun,
Hai Dian District, Beijing 100044, China.
Email: hbqu@bjtu.edu.cn
Proc IMechE Part C:
J Mechanical Engineering Science
0(0) 113
! IMechE 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0954406214525366
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singularities and self-motion of 3-UPU parallel mech-
anism by using the linear complex approximation.
Meanwhile, Conconi and Carricato
24
have made an
assessment on the singularities of general parallel
kinematic chains with dierent hierarchical levels,
and discussed the constraint singularity of 3-UPU
parallel mechanism. Gogu
25
addressed the constraint
singularities in connection with the structural param-
eters of parallel mechanism. Chebbi and Parenti-
Castelli
26
collected the most relevant results on
singularities and workspace of the 3-UPU parallel
mechanism proposed by Tsai, and investigated the
inuence of some geometric parameters especially
the orientation of revolute axes and the locations of
its legs on the singularity loci and workspace size.
Chebbi et al.
27
studied the singularity based on the
kinetostatic of the 3-UPU parallel mechanism. Gan
et al.
28
designed a new metamorphic parallel mechan-
ism by changing the universal joint to the recongur-
able joint in the general 3-UPU parallel mechanism.
Qu et al.
29
performed the analysis of the unexpected
rotation evaluation and avoidance of the 3-UPU par-
allel mechanism. Merlet
30
also pointed out that the
3-UPU mechanism will exhibit only translation
motion if it satises exactly geometrical constraints,
which in practice cannot be satised. Also, some
researchers have studied the performance of parallel
mechanisms with UPU kinematic limbs. Lu and Hu
31
addressed a family of 2-UPU-X parallel mechanisms
and obtained an asymmetric 3-UPU parallel mechan-
ism. Zhao et al.
32,33
analyzed the mobility and singu-
larity of a 4-UPU parallel mechanism with Scho nies
motion.
A parallel mechanism with redundant actuations
refers to the use of more actuators than minimally
required for doing the prescribed task. The actuator
redundancy in parallel mechanism can be used to
reducing some singular congurations,
34
enlarging
the workspace,
35
and improving the stiness,
36
and
so on. Therefore, adding redundant actuations for
the parallel mechanisms is considered as an eective
approach to improve the performance.
In this paper, a novel type of 4-UPU pure transla-
tional parallel mechanism with redundant actuations
is proposed. The paper is organized as follows. In
Section Unexpected rotations, the reason for unex-
pected rotations of parallel mechanism constructed by
UPU kinematic limbs is analyzed. In Section A novel
pure translational parallel mechanism, a novel type
of 4-UPU pure translational parallel mechanism with
redundant actuations is proposed by choosing the
2-UPU single loop as basic constructing unit. In
Section Kinematic and singularity analysis, the
kinematic analysis of the improved 4-UPU pure trans-
lational parallel mechanism is performed. In Section
Workspace analysis and fault-tolerant perform-
ance, the fault-tolerant performance is analyzed
and the fault-tolerant workspace is obtained.
Finally, some conclusions involving the design and
fault-tolerant considerations are given in Section
Conclusion.
Unexpected rotations
A translational parallel mechanism constructed by the
UPU kinematic limbs is easy to exhibit the unex-
pected rotations in practice.
30
We take the typical
3-UPU parallel mechanism proposed by Tsai
3
as the
example to illustrate this phenomenon of unexpected
rotations. The typical 3-UPU parallel mechanism
consists of a moving platform, a xed base, and
three limbs of identical kinematic structures. The
moving platform and the xed base possess the similar
dimensions, and they are connected by a universal
joint, a prismatic joint, and another universal joint.
The three prismatic joints are chosen as the actuated
joints.
Although many researchers
15,16,22,26,27
have done
some related analyses on the 3-UPU parallel mechan-
ism, it is based on the following assumption:
For each limb, the rst revolute joint axis is parallel
to the last revolute joint axis, and the two intermedi-
ate revolute joint axes are parallel to one another.
This assumption is the necessary and sucient con-
dition for the 3-UPU parallel mechanism to possess
three pure translational motions. However, due to the
existence of manufacturing clearances or assembly
errors, this condition cannot be satised over the
whole workspace of this parallel mechanism. For
example, one rotational conguration of this parallel
mechanism can be seen in Figure 1. In this case, there
exists an angle
2
between the joint axes s
21
and s
25
, of
the revolute joints attached to the xed base and to
the moving platform, respectively.
Figure 1. Rotational configuration of 3-UPU parallel
mechanism.
2 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
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Therefore, a more reasonable hypothesis for the
analyses of the 3-UPU parallel mechanism is to
assume that there may be an angle
i
between the
joint axis of the revolute joint attached to the xed
base and the revolute joint attached to the moving
platform. Under this assumption, it may be shown
that the UPU limb is an instantaneous structure,
which can provide a constraint couple or a constraint
force according to the value of
i
, as shown in
Figure 2.
Take one UPU limb as an example, as shown in
Figure 2, all the feasible twists of a limb form a ve-
system with established coordinate system A
i
xyz.
$
i1
1 0 0; 0 0 0

T
$
i2
0 sin
i
cos
i
; 0 0 0

T
$
i3
0 0 0; sin
i
cos
i
cos
i
cos
i
sin
i

T
$
i4

0 sin
i
cos
i
; l
i
cos
i
l
i
cos
i
sin
i
l
i
sin
i
sin
i
" #
T
$
i5

cos
i
cos
i
sin
i
sin
i
sin
i
;
0 l
i
cos
i

i
sin
i
l
i
cos
i
cos
i

i
" #
T
8
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
<
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
:
where
i
is the angle from the limb direction to the
normal vector of universal joint (A
i
) plane of the ith
limb,
i
denotes the angle from the normal vector of
universal joint (A
i
) plane of the ith limb to the xed
base plane, and
i
represents the angle between the
joint axes of revolute joints attached to the moving
platform and xed base, respectively.
The reciprocal screw of the kinematic UPU chain
can be obtained by using the algebra operation of
reciprocal product
37
$
r
0
sec
i

i
sin
i
l
i
cot
i
sec
i

i
sin
i
l
i
0 cot
i
1
T
1
If
i
0, then the reciprocal screw $
r
can be sim-
plied to $
r
C
, which denotes a pure constraint couple
$
r
C
0 0 0; 0 cot
i
1

T
2
If
i
possesses a nite value,
i
6 0, then the recip-
rocal screw $
r
can be rewritten as $
r
F
, which represents
a pure constraint force
$
r
F

0
sec
i

i
sin
i
l
i
cot
i
sec
i

i
sin
i
l
i
0 cot
i
1
T
3
where the subscript F and C denote the constraint
force and constraint couple, respectively.
In these two cases, we can obtain the physical
expressions of a constraint force and a constraint
couple with an established coordinate system as
shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. The possible wrench type of UPU kinematic limb. (a) The constraint couple provided by single UPU limb and (b) the
constraint force provided by single UPU limb.
Qu et al. 3
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When the UPU limb provides a constraint force, it
can be called F-limb, as shown in Figure 2(a). The
necessary and sucient condition for an F-limb is
that all the revolute joints of an F-limb must be inter-
secting or parallel to the constraint force and all the
prismatic joint axes of an F-limb are perpendicular to
the constraint force. When the UPU limb provides a
constraint couple, it can be called C-limb, as shown in
Figure 2(b). Now the necessary and sucient condi-
tion for a C-limb is that all the revolute joint axes of a
C-limb must be perpendicular to the constraint couple
and the prismatic joint axes, if any, of a C-limb that
can be oriented arbitrarily as long as they are linearly
independent.
When compared with these two cases, the main
reason for the change from an F-limb to a C-limb
or a C-limb to an F-limb is the possible existing
angle
i
. From equations (2) and (3), we know that
when the angle
i
is changed from nite value to zero,
the wrench applied on the moving platform is also
changed from a constraint force $
r
F
at point M
i
to a
constraint couple $
r
C
. We can also believe that case 2,
as shown in Figure 2(b), is a special form of case 1, as
shown in Figure 2(a). When the UPU limb provides a
constraint force, as shown in equation (3), the paral-
lelism between the xed base and the moving platform
cannot be guaranteed, namely there occurs unex-
pected rotations. Within the workspace of 3-UPU
parallel mechanism, the angle
i
cannot be guaranteed
to be zero even in ideal conditions.
Therefore, when there are unexpected rotations,
the constraint system of the moving platform will
not be constituted by only constraint couples, and
the constraint system can be classied in three cases:
Case 1: The constraint system is constituted by two
constraint couples and one constraint force.
However, considered the congurations in practice,
this case cannot be realized.
The two existed constraint couples denote that there
are two intersected axes of revolute joints attached to
the moving platform are parallel to the xed base.
While the existed constraint force represents that
there appears an angle
i
from the joint axis of the
revolute joint attached to the xed base and the revo-
lute joint attached to the moving platform, as shown
in Figure 3.
When the two intersected axes, s
15
and s
25
, of revo-
lute joints attached to the moving platform are paral-
lel to the xed base simultaneously, the moving
platform and xed base are proved to be parallel to
each other. Therefore, the angle
3
from the joint axis,
s
35
, of the revolute joint attached to the xed base will
be equal to zero, which is conict to the existence of
constraint force.
Case 2: The constraint system is constituted by one
constraint couple and two constraint forces, as shown
in Figure 4.
Since a constraint force constrains the possible
translation along the constraint force and a constraint
couple constrains the possible rotation around the
axis, which is parallel to the constraint couple, the
movement of moving platform should be two rota-
tions and one translation.
Figure 3. The possible configurations of case 1.
Figure 4. The possible configuration of case 2.
Figure 5. The possible configurations of case 3.
XML Template (2014) [17.2.20144:53pm] [113]
Case 3: The constraint system is constituted by three
constraint forces, as shown in Figure 5.
As shown in Figure 5, the constraint force provided
by each kinematic limb is perpendicular to a certain
plane, which is determined by two intersecting axes of
revolute joints attached to the moving platform and
xed base, respectively.
While each two of the three determined planes are
intersected with an angle, the three constraint forces
are neither intersected nor parallel with each other.
Therefore, the three lines along the three constraint
forces are the generators of the regulus. The regulus is
dened that there is a set of lines that intersect these
three lines, and this set of lines builds a quadric sur-
face, i.e. a regulus.
29
Without loss of generality, the general expression
of line generator of this regulus can be written as
x
y
z
2
6
4
3
7
5 R z,
x
0
y
0
z
0
2
6
4
3
7
5
acos bt sin
bt cos asin
ct
2
6
4
3
7
5 4
where Rz, denotes the rotation matrix about z axis.
x
0
a, y
0
bt, and z
0
ct are the parameter equa-
tions of one generator on the regulus. a, b, and c are
the parameters of semi axis of the regulus.
From equation (4), we can determine the position
of the constraint force by a vector r, and the direction
of the constraint force by a vector s. The Plu cker
coordinates of the constraint force can be expressed as
$
r
s; s
0

T
b sin b cos c; ac sin ac cos ab
T
5
where r a cos , a sin , 0
T
, s b sin b cos c
T
.
Therefore, the possible basic motion of the moving
platform can be obtained by performing the algebra
operation of reciprocal product
35
on the three con-
straint forces
$
1
1 0 0;
ac
b
0 0
h i
T
$
2
0 1 0; 0
ac
b
0
h i
T
$
3
0 0 1; 0 0
ab
c

T
8
>
>
>
>
>
<
>
>
>
>
>
:
6
Equation (6) indicates that the moving platform
possesses three screw motions.
Therefore, the 3-UPU parallel mechanism is an
instantaneous parallel mechanism, which cannot
keep the moving platform from changing its orienta-
tion over the whole workspace. Although the initial
design objective is to obtain a parallel mechanism
with pure translations, this 3-UPU parallel
mechanism cannot guarantee the parallelism between
the joint axes of revolute joints attached to the
moving platform and xed base, and then the paral-
lelism between the moving platform and xed base
cannot be guaranteed.
A novel pure translational parallel
mechanism
For the parallel mechanism constructed by UPU kine-
matic limbs, the sucient geometric condition to keep
the moving platform from changing its orientation is
to eliminate the possibility of the angle between the
joint axes, s
i1
and s
i5
, of the revolute joints attached to
the xed base and the moving platform, i.e.
i
0.
Considered the conguration requirements of case 1,
as shown in Figure 3, when the two intersected axes,
s
15
and s
25
, of revolute joints attached to the moving
platform are parallel to the xed base simultaneously,
the moving platform and xed base are proved to be
parallel to each other.
Therefore, the aim of designing a translational
parallel mechanism constructed by UPU kinematic
limbs is transformed to guarantee that there are at
least two parallel structures. And each parallel
structure can be depicted as the parallelism between
the axes of revolute joints attached to the moving
platform and the xed base in a UPU kinematic
limb.
In order to eliminate the possible rotations as
shown in Figures 4 and 5, namely to eliminate the
possible angle
i
, we propose to use a 2-UPU unit
structure, as shown in Figure 7, to guarantee a kind
of parallelism between the axes of revolute joints
Figure 6. The 4-UPU parallel mechanism with redundant
actuations.
Qu et al. 5
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attached to the moving platform and the xed base in
each UPU kinematic limb, and the proof
will be stated in Section The proof of expected
parallelism.
Here, we propose a 4-UPU parallel mechanism by
two 2-UPU unit structure assembled with cross struc-
ture, as shown in Figure 6. Each 2-UPU unit structure
ensures the parallelism between the axes of revolute
joints attached to the moving platform and the xed
base in each UPU kinematic limb. The cross assembly
structure in this proposed 4-UPU parallel mechanism
has guaranteed the basic translational requirements
for parallel mechanism constructed by UPU kine-
matic limbs, namely there are at least two parallelisms
between the axes of revolute joints attached to the
moving platform and the xed base in a UPU kine-
matic limb. Therefore, this structure leads to pure
translational motions of the moving platform in
three-dimensional space.
In this 4-UPU parallel mechanism, the four pris-
matic joints are chosen as the actuated joints. And the
three translational motions of the moving platform
are controlled by varying the lengths of the four pris-
matic joints. As a result, the proposed 4-UPU parallel
mechanism is a pure translational mechanism with
redundant actuations.
The proof of expected parallelism
Since the proposed 4-UPU parallel mechanism is con-
structed by the basic 2-UPU unit structure and the
sucient geometric condition to keep the moving
platform from changing its orientation is
i
0, the
criteria to determine the pure translations of moving
platform of 4-UPU parallel mechanism can be
transformed to prove that there does not exist the
joint angle
i
in the basic 2-UPU structure.
One basic 2-UPU unit structure is shown in
Figure 7, and its congurations are as follows:
1. The two joint axes of revolute joints attached to
the xed base are parallel with each other, i.e.
s
11
==s
31
.
2. The two joint axes of revolute joints attached to
the moving platform are parallel with each other,
i.e. s
15
==s
35
.
3. The xed base and moving platform possess dif-
ferent dimensions, and therefore the two planes,
1
and
2
, are not parallel with each other, which
are determined by the joint axes s
11
and s
15
, s
31
and s
35
, respectively. In order to facilitate the ana-
lysis, an assisted plane
3
is added, as shown in
Figure 7. The assisted plane
3
is parallel with
plane
1
.
4. The plane
3
and the base plane
4
intersect at the
intersecting line s
0
11
, and there exist the geometric
conguration, s
11
==s
0
11
.
This proof can be performed by the method of
proof by conict. The proof by conict is a form of
proof that establishes the truth of a proposition by
showing that the propositions being false
would imply a contradiction. The proposition can
be stated as,
Proposition. The joint angle between the joint axes,
s
i1
and s
i5
, of the revolute joints attached to the xed
base and the moving platform is equal to zero, i.e.
i
0.
Proof. (proof by contradiction). Suppose this propos-
ition is false, i.e.
i
6 0.
This conditional statement being false means the
joint angle between the the joint axes, s
i1
and s
i5
, of
the revolute joints attached to the xed base and the
moving platform is not equal to zero, i.e. hs
i1
, s
i5
i
i
.
Based on the geometric conditions s
11
==s
31
and
s
15
==s
35
, we get hs
11
, s
15
i hs
31
, s
35
i
1
.
With the added geometric condition, s
11
==s
0
11
, it
results that s
0
11
==s
31
, and then results hs
0
11
, s
35
i
1
.
From the conditions hs
31
, s
35
i
1
, hs
0
11
, s
35
i
1
,
we get that the joint axis s
35
intersects
with joint axes s
31
and s
0
11
simultaneously.
Since s
0
11
==s
31
, the above condition indicates that the
joint axes s
35
, s
31
, and s
0
11
are located in the same
plane.
However, the non-coincidence of plane
2
and
3
reveals that the axes s
35
, s
31
, and s
0
11
are not
located in the same plane. Thus, there exists a
contradiction.
In other words, the proposition is true, which indi-
cates that the moving platform of this proposed
4-UPU parallel mechanism possesses no rotations.
The proof is completed.
Figure 7. The 2-UPU unit structure.
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DOF analysis
In this section, we will study the DOF of the moving
platform as shown in Figure 4 by considering the rela-
tionship between the geometric constraint and
DOFs.
38
Since the moving platform surely shows no
unexpected rotations during the movement according
to Section Unexpected rotations, each kinematic
limb provides a constraint couple to the moving
platform
$
r
A
1
B
1
0 0 0; 0 cot
1
1

T
$
r
A
2
B
2
0 0 0; cot
2
0 1

T
$
r
A
3
B
3
0 0 0; 0 cot
3
1

T
$
r
A
4
B
4
0 0 0; cot
2
0 1

T
8
>
>
>
>
<
>
>
>
>
:
7
where
i
denotes the angle from the normal vector of
universal joint (A
i
) plane of the ith limb to the xed
base plane.
The constraint couples in equation (7) form the
terminal constraint system (TCS) applied on the
moving platform
$
r
TCS
$
r
A
1
B
1
$
r
A
2
B
2
$
r
A
3
B
3
$
r
A
4
B
4
h i
T
8
where the subscript TCS represents the terminal con-
straint system.
At ordinary position, the rank of the TCS, $
r
TCS
, is
Rank $
r
TCS

3 constrain three rotational DOFs
9
So according to Zhao et al.,
39
the DOF of this
4-UPU parallel mechanism at ordinary position is
F 6 Rank $
r
TCS

6 3 3 10
Namely, this parallel mechanism possesses three
translational DOFs.
Kinematic and singularity analysis
Due to the existence of redundantly actuated kine-
matic limb, the forward kinematics of the proposed
4-UPU parallel mechanism is simplied and the sin-
gular congurations are reduced. The performance
analysis will be carried out in the following section.
For the purpose of analysis, a coordinate system
o xyz is attached to the xed base at point o, and
another coordinate system p uvw is attached to the
moving platform at point p. The axes x, y, z are par-
allel with the axes u, v, w, respectively. The four joint
center points A
1
, A
2
, A
3
, A
4
of the universal joints
mounted to the xed base form a square with 2 L
side length, and the four joint center points
B
1
, B
2
, B
3
, B
4
of the universal joints mounted to the
moving platform form a square with 2 h side length.
The geometric center points of the two squares are
coincident with point o and p, respectively.
The position vectors of point A
i
expressed in the
coordinate system o xyz and B
i
expressed in the
coordinate system p uvw are given as
A
1
0 L 0

T
A
2
L 0 0

T
A
3
0 L 0

T
A
4
L 0 0

T
8
>
>
>
>
<
>
>
>
>
:
,
p
B
1
0 h 0

T
p
B
2
h 0 0

T
p
B
3
0 h 0

T
p
B
4
h 0 0

T
8
>
>
>
>
<
>
>
>
>
:
11
where the left superscript p denotes that the position
vector of B
i
is expressed in the coordinate system
p uvw.
Then, the position vector of point B
i
expressed in
the coordinate system o xyz is
B
i
1

E
33
p
0 1

p
B
i
1

12
where E
33
is a unit matrix and p is the position vector
of point p expressed in the coordinate system o xyz,
p x
p
y
p
z
p
T
.
Therefore, the position vector of point B
i
is
obtained
B
1
x
p
y
p
h z
p

T
B
2
x
p
h y
p
z
p

T
B
3
x
p
y
p
h z
p

T
B
4
x
p
h y
p
z
p

T
8
>
>
>
>
<
>
>
>
>
:
13
Kinematic analysis
1. Inverse kinematics
The inverse kinematic problem is to determine the
length l
i
of A
i
B
i
, being given the coordinates of the
moving platform center point p.
The position vectors of point A
i
and B
i
in coord-
inate system o xyz can refer to equations (11) and
(13), the limb length, l
i
, can be solved as follows
l
2
1
A
1
B
1
j j
2
x
2
p
y
p
L h
2
z
2
p
14
l
2
2
A
2
B
2
j j
2
x
p
h L
2
y
2
p
z
2
p
15
l
2
3
A
3
B
3
j j
2
x
2
p
y
0
h L
2
z
2
p
16
l
2
4
A
4
B
4
j j
2
x
p
L h
2
y
2
p
z
2
p
17
Since the four limbs are located at the same side of
the base, the lengths of the four input limbs are sim-
ultaneously positive or negative, here we assume the
limb lengths are all positive.
Qu et al. 7
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2. Forward kinematics
For forward kinematics, the lengths of the
four input limbs are given, and the problem is to
nd the position vectors of center point p of
the moving platform. This can be accomplished
through solving the equation system from equations
(14) to (17).
Subtracting equation (14) from equation (16) yields
l
2
1
l
2
3
4L h y
p
18
Subtracting equation (15) from equation (17) yields
l
2
2
l
2
4
4h Lx
p
19
The coordinate of x
p
and y
p
can be deduced from
equations (18) and (19), respectively
x
p

l
2
2
l
2
4
4h L
, y
p

l
2
1
l
2
3
4L h
20
Substituting x
p
and y
p
into any one of equations
(14) to (17), a quadratic equation of z
p
can be
obtained. By ignoring the negative value, the analytic
expression of z
p
is obtained
z
01

1
4
l
4
1
l
2
2
l
2
4
2
2l
2
1
l
2
3
4h L
2
l
2
3
4h
2
8hL 4L
2
h L
2
v
u
u
u
u
t
21
z
02

1
4
l
4
2
l
2
1
l
2
3
2
2l
2
2
l
2
4
4h L
2
l
2
4
4h
2
8hL 4L
2
h L
2
v
u
u
u
u
t
22
The above analysis shows that the forward kine-
matics of this improved 4-UPU translational parallel
mechanism with redundant actuations can be done
explicitly.
Jacobian and singularity analysis
The Jacobian matrix is a multidimensional form
of the derivative, which transforms the joint rates in
the actuated joint space to the velocity space of the
moving platform. For the parallel mechanism,
Gosselin and Angeles
40
suggested a separation of
the Jacobian matrix into two matrices: one associated
with the forward kinematics and another with the
inverse kinematics.
Dierentiating equations (14) to (17) with respect
to time and writing in matrix form, the dierential
relations between the actuated joint space and the
velocity space of the moving platform can be
deduced as
J
p
_ p J
q
_ q 23
where
J
p

2x
p
2y
p
L h 2z
p
2x
p
h L 2y
p
2z
p
2x
p
2 y
p
h L 2z
p
2x
p
L h 2y
p
2z
p
2
6
6
4
3
7
7
5
J
q

2l
1
0 0 0
0 2l
2
0 0
0 0 2l
3
0
0 0 0 2l
4
2
6
6
4
3
7
7
5
and where _ p _ x
p
_ y
p
_ z
p
T
represents the velocity
of point p of the moving platform and
_ q
_
l
1
_
l
2
_
l
3
_
l
4
T
denotes the actuated joint
velocities.
Two Jacobian matrices are obtained as above, J
p
is
named as the forward Jacobian matrix and J
q
is
named as the inverse Jacobian matrix. The parallel
mechanism is said to be at a singular conguration
when either J
p
or J
q
or both are singular, which results
in three dierent types of singularities.
Since the length of the input limb l
i
cannot be zero,
the determinant of inverse Jacobian matrix will not be
zero, only the determinant of forward Jacobian
matrix should be considered. While J
p
is a 4 3 rect-
angular matrix, we cannot solve the determinant dir-
ectly. Here we select an arbitrary 3 3 sub-matrix J
0
p
from J
p
and solve its determinant
detJ
0
p
16h L
2
z
p
24
where det represents the determinant of a matrix,
z
p
is the coordinate of point p of moving platform in
direction z and will not be equal to zero.
The only singularity of this 4-UPU parallel mech-
anism is obtained by setting the determinant of J
0
p
to
be zero
h L 25
The singular conguration is occurred when the
geometric dimensions of the xed base and the
moving platform are identical. At this singular geo-
metric condition, the concrete singular forms can be
described as:
1. When the lengths of the four input limbs are equal
to each other, the moving platform has innitesi-
mal motion with all the actuate joints that are
locked as shown in Figure 8.
2. The moving platform can perform a rotational
motion, as shown in Figure 9. However, the
XML Template (2014) [17.2.20144:53pm] [113]
position and orientation of the moving platform
still can be controlled because of the existence of
the redundant limb.
Workspace analysis and fault-tolerant
performance
Workspace analysis
In order to evaluate the designed mechanism, it is
necessary to determine the boundaries of the work-
space.
41,42
For the parallel mechanism with pure
translational motions, the workspace is dened as
the set of referred point on moving platform that
can be reached. In this section, the workspace of
this 4-UPU parallel mechanism with redundant actu-
ations is analyzed. Since the moving platform pos-
sesses pure translational motions, to calculate the
reachable workspace of the moving platform, it can
be transformed to get the reachable position set of
point p. The reachable workspace of this 4-UPU par-
allel mechanism can be expressed as
W x
p
, y
p
, z
p

2 R
3
jd
i, min
4d
i
4d
i, max

, i 1, 2, 3, 4
26
where W is the reachable position set of point p,
x
p
, y
p
, z
p
denotes the position vector of point p,
and d
i, min
and d
i, max
represent the minimum and max-
imum length values of the actuated limb.
Based on the consideration of the length value of
actuated limb, the workspace boundary can be
obtained when the actuated limbs are stretched to
the maximum length value. The calculation is pre-
sented in the following three steps:
1. Dene the structural parameters of the 4-UPU
parallel mechanism, including L, h, d
i, min
, and
d
i, max
.
2. With the discretization of the length value of the
actuated limb, the discrete point cloud of point p
can be depicted based on the forward kinematics.
The point cloud represents the discrete reachable
Figure 8. The first form of singular configuration. (a) The
initial position and (b) the position after moving.
Figure 9. The second form of singular configuration.
Table 1. The structural parameters of this 4-UPU parallel
mechanism with redundant actuations (mm).
Variable d
i, min
d
i, max
h L
Value 30 60 30 50
Table 2. The estimated position range of point p (mm).
Variable minx
p
maxx
p
miny
p
maxy
p
minz
p
maxz
p
Value 33.75 33.75 33.75 33.75 28.80 94.94
Qu et al. 9
XML Template (2014) [17.2.20144:53pm] [113]
workspace of point p, and the estimated position
range of point p can be obtained.
3. Check the point p in the estimated position range
whether it satises the length constraint of the
actuated limb. If the position coordinates of
point p meet the length constraint, then the pos-
ition coordinates of point p should be recorded
and projected to the three-dimensional position
space, and the reachable workspace of point p
can be obtained. If not, then the point p should
be discarded.
Next, the reachable workspace of this 4-UPU parallel
mechanism is performed based the above analysis
procedure. The structural parameters are listed in
Table 1. Since the four limbs possess identical struc-
tures, we assume that the length ranges of each actu-
ated limb are the same.
Through the forward kinematics of this parallel
mechanism, the estimated position range of point p
is obtained as listed in Table 2.
Finally, the point p in the estimated position range
is checked to ensure that satises the length constraint
of the actuated limb. After projecting the satised
point p to the three-dimensional position space, the
reachable workspace of point p is obtained, as shown
in Figures 10(a), 11(a), and 12(a).
Workspace of fault-tolerant configuration
The fault-tolerant performance is a critical index
when the parallel mechanism is applied to some spe-
cial elds, such as space, clear-up of hazardous waste,
and so on. Therefore, the used parallel mechanism
should be fault-tolerant to ensure the working reliabil-
ity. Even in the failure mode, the fault-tolerant paral-
lel mechanism can still perform the whole or part of
the task operations. The failure modes of a mechan-
ism
43
include locked-joint, free-swinging joint, and
following-motion joint, where the locked-joint is one
of the most common modes.
In this section, the fault-tolerant workspace is
dened as the reachable workspace of moving plat-
form when the parallel mechanism is in locked-joint
failure mode. And the fault-tolerant workspace is
used to evaluate the fault-tolerant performance of
the proposed 4-UPU parallel mechanism. The existing
fault-tolerant workspace indicates that the parallel
mechanism can still perform some continuous
motions even there occurs the locked-joint failure.
Figure 10. Comparison of the continuous workspace and fault-tolerant workspace.
Figure 11. Comparison of the maximum XZ section of workspace and fault-tolerant workspace.
XML Template (2014) [17.2.20144:53pm] [113]
We assume that one actuated joint of this proposed
4-UPU parallel mechanism is broken and locked
when the length of rst actuated limb is equal to
45 mm, and the other structural parameters are
listed in Table 1.
Based on the obtained forward kinematics and the
discretization of the length value of the other three
actuated limbs, the discrete point cloud of point p
can be depicted as shown in Figure 13, and the esti-
mated position range of point p in locked-joint failure
mode is obtained as listed in Table 3.
After that, the point p in the estimated position
range is checked whether it satises the length con-
straint of the other three actuated limbs. The point p,
which meets the length constraint of the other three
actuated limbs, is recorded and projected to the three-
dimensional position space. And then, the continuous
fault-tolerant reachable workspace of point p is
obtained when one failure actuated limb is locked at
45 mm, as shown in Figures 10(b), 11(b), and 12(b).
From the above fault-tolerant workspace analysis,
we know that the proposed 4-UPU 3-DOF transla-
tional parallel mechanism can still perform the fault-
tolerant operations even in the locked-joint failure
mode.
Conclusion
This paper addresses a novel type of 4-UPU 3-DOF
translational parallel mechanism with redundant
actuations. The main work and conclusions of this
paper are drawn as follows:
1. The reason for unexpected motions of parallel
mechanism constructed by UPU kinematic limbs
is analyzed.
2. A novel type of 4-UPU 3-DOF translational par-
allel mechanism with redundant actuations is pro-
posed. This redundantly actuated parallel
mechanism is constructed by basic 2-UPU struc-
ture, and the possible unexpected rotations are
eliminated. Since the existence of redundantly
actuated kinematic limb, this proposed parallel
mechanism possesses analytical forward kine-
matics, and its singularity can be avoided
completely.
3. This proposed parallel mechanism provides cer-
tain fault-tolerant performance, and its fault-tol-
erant workspace is obtained. The 4-UPU parallel
mechanism will still perform some spatial transla-
tions when one kinematic limb is in locked-joint
failure mode.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China [grant numbers 51175029, 51075025];
the Beijing Natural Science Foundation [grant number
Figure 12. Comparison of the maximum XY section of workspace and fault-tolerant workspace.
Figure 13. The discrete point cloud of point p in locked-joint
failure.
Table 3. The estimated position range of point p (mm).
Variables minx
p
maxx
p
miny
p
maxy
p
minz
p
maxz
p
Value 19.69 14.06 33.75 33.75 28.80 44.99
Qu et al. 11
XML Template (2014) [17.2.20144:53pm] [113]
3132019]; and the Program for New Century Excellent
Talents in University [grant number NCET-12-0769].
Conflict of interest
None declared.
Acknowledgements
This paper has been partly accomplished in INRIA
Sophia Antipolis where Dr Haibo Qu is a visiting scholar
in project COPRIN, and that part is revised by Dr J-P
Merlet.
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