Forward kinematics of the general 6-6 fully parallel mechanism: An exhaustive numerical approach via a mono-dimensional-search algorithm

A new numerical method for the solution of the direct position analysis of the six d.o.f. fully parallel mechanism with general geometry, often referred to as generalized Stewart platform mechanism, is presented. The main feature of the method, making it attractive with respect to the methods available in the literature, is the ability to find out all the real solutions of the direct position analysis. The effectiveness of the new algorithm relies upon the solution of only one equation in one unknown. That equation is strictly representative of the problem, i.e., it is free from extraneous roots and every solution of the direct position analysis entails the existence of a root for the equation. A case study is reported. © 1993 by ASME.