Kinematics analysis and workspace investigation of a novel 2-DOF parallel manipulator applied in vehicle driving simulator

A novel two degree of freedom (DOF) parallel manipulator with 3 legs, which is applied in vehicle driving simulator, is proposed in this paper. Kinematics and workspace of the proposed parallel manipulator are systematically studied. The proposed mechanism with two rotations includes the bottom fixed platform, two servo electrical cylinders, one supporting pillar, the top platform and some joints. First the kinematics characteristics of the 2-DOF parallel manipulator are analyzed and geometric description are given. Second some analytic formulae are derived for solving inverse displacement and forward displacement for the two rotations of the proposed 2-DOF mechanism. Third workspace for this 2-DOF mechanism is constructed and analyzed. The analytic results are verified by its simulation mechanism to be consistent with the calculated ones. The proposed mechanism has very simple structure and low cost and can realize two rotations in space. An example is given using in proprioceptive mechanism of vehicle driving simulator.

► A novel 2-DOF parallel manipulator with 3 legs is proposed.
► The proposed 2-DOF PKM can be applied to the field of vehicle driving simulator.
► Geometric constrained equations of the proposed 2-DOF PKM are derived.
► Some equations of inverse displacement and forward displacement are given.
► A workspace is constructed and analyzed for the proposed 2-DOF PKM.