Plenary Talk 7

Title: New Family of RPR-equivalent Parallel Robots: Design and Application

Speaker: Professor Qinchuan Li

Abstract: A new family of RPR-equivalent parallel robots is presented, which can perform two rotations and one translation as a RPR serial chain. The proposed new parallel robots have advantages of specified rotation axis, simple kinematic model, which are beneficial to control and calibration. More importantly, these mechanisms can be fully or partly actuated with fixed linear actuators, leading to high stiffness, good dynamic response and high payload capability. To eliminate singularities and further improve stiffness, redundantly actuated RPR-equivalent parallel robots are constructed by adding proper kinematic chains on non-redundant ones and keeping necessary geometrical conditions. The proposed mechanisms are suitable to be used in the development of hybrid or parallel five-axis machining centers requiring good stiffness, high accuracy and manipulability.

Short Bio: Qinchuan Li, born in 1975, is currently a professor at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, China. He received his PhD degree on mechanism design and theory from Yanshan University, China, in 2003. His research interests include robotics, design and application of parallel manipulators. He received the National Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2015.