Singularity kinematics principle and position-singularity analyses of the 6-3 Stewart-Gough parallel manipulators

This paper presents a new principle and method of kinematics to analyze the singularity of Stewart-Gough parallel manipulators and addresses the property identification of the position-singularity loci of the 6-3 Stewart-Gough manipulators for special orientations. Based on the kinematic relationship of a rigid body, a necessary and sufficient condition that three velocities of three non-collinear points in a moving rigid body can determine a screw motion is addressed and some typical singular configurations of the 6-3 Stewart-Gough parallel manipulators are also addressed in detail. With the above-mentioned condition, a symbolic analytical polynomial expression of degree three in the moving platform position parameters, representing the position-singularity locus of the 6-3 Stewart-Gough manipulators for special orientations, is derived; and the property identification of the position-singularity loci of the 6-3 Stewart-Gough manipulator for these special orientations is investigated at length. It is shown that position-singularity loci of the 6-3 Stewart-Gough parallel manipulator for these special orientations will be a plane and a hyperbolic paraboloid, even three intersecting planes.