Conceptual Design and Workspace Analysis of an Exechon-Inspired Parallel Kinematic Machine

摘要

Inspired by the commercial application of the Exechon machine, this paper proposed a novel parallel kinematic machine (PKM) named Exe-Variant. By exchanging the sequence of kinematic pairs in each limb of the Exechon machine, the Exe-Variant PKM claims an arrangement of topology and consists of two identical RPU limbs and one RPS limb. The inverse kinematics of the 2RPU/1RPS parallel mechanism was firstly analyzed based on which a conceptual design of the Exe-Variant was carried out. Then an algorithm of reachable workspace searching for the Exe-Variant and the Exechon was proposed. Finally, the workspaces of two example systems of the Exechon and the Exe-Variant with approximate dimensions were numerically simulated and compared. The comparison shows that the Exe-Variant possesses a competitive workspace with the Exechon machine, indicating it can be used as a promising reconfigurable module in a hybrid 5-DOF machine tool system.