The design of the robotic mechanisms is most important because they determine the performance characteristics of the robots. This paper concerns the issue of computer-aided design (CAD) for planar 3-DOF parallel robotic mechanisms by means of the physical model of the solution space, which can be used systematically to express the relationships between the performance criteria and all link lengths of one type of the robtic mechanism. The performance atlases of the workspace volume for the manipulators are plotted in the physical model of the solution space. The characteristics of the distribution of the workspace shapes in the physical model of the solution space are presented. The results are useful for the optimum design of the robotic mechanisms. This paper proposes a new way for robotic CAD.

Parallel manipulators for the machine tool industry have been studied extensively for various industrial applications. However, limited useful workspace areas, the poor mobility, and design difficulties of mote complex parallel manipulators have led to more interest in parallel manipulators with less than six degrees of freedom (Dots). Several parallel mechanisms with various numbers and types of degrees of freedom are described in this paper, which can be used in parallel kinematics machines, motion simulators, and industrial robots