Parallel manipulator software tool for design, analysis, and simulation of 195 GSP mechanisms
In this paper, a new parallel manipulator software tool based on the MATLAB Graphical User Interface (GUI) is developed for design, analysis and simulation of 195 6-DOF General Stewart Platform mechanisms (GSP). The new proposed tool called as GSPDAP uses four basic leg types (SPS, SPC, CPS, and CCC) to design GSP mechanisms. Point or line coordinates required for leg connections are sufficient for GSPDAP to design a GSP mechanism. Once the design of a GSP mechanism is completed, GSPDAP provides the user with several analyses such as inverse kinematics, Jacobian matrix, workspace, and dexterity. It is not necessary for the user to have preliminary knowledge to obtain the inverse kinematics or Jacobian matrix etc. Additionally, GSPDAP generates symbolic equations for the inverse kinematics and the inverse Jacobian matrices of 195 GSP mechanisms. Including 195 parallel manipulator in its library, GSPDAP provides the educational users to profoundly improve the understanding of parallel manipulator fundamentals through interactive simulation. Parallel manipulators are more complex structures than their serial counterparts. Therefore, designing even one parallel manipulator is very cumbersome and expensive issue. In this condition GSPDAP may provide educators and students to design their manipulators in a computer environment with minimum cost. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 23:931–946, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21665