Kinetostatic analysis of a novel 6-DoF 3UPS parallel manipulator with multi-fingers

•Design a novel 6-DoF 3UPS parallel manipulator with multi-fingers.•Derive formulae for solving kinetostatics of UPS composite leg, and the PM.•Transform kinetostatics of fingers-tip into that of active legs of PM and fingers.•Construct workspaces of the PM and one finger.•Give solved example of PM with 3 fingers, verify analytic solution by simulation.

A novel 6-DoF 3UPS parallel manipulator (PM) with multi-fingers is proposed and its kinetostatics is studied in the light of its application. First, the proposed PM with multi-fingers is designed, and its structural characteristics are analyzed. Second, some formulae are derived for solving the displacement, linear/angular velocity and acceleration of UPS type composite active leg, the Jacobian and Hessian matrices, and the velocity, statics and acceleration of the 3UPS PM. Third, the kinematics of fingers and the workload applied on the fingers are transformed into the coordination kinematics and the active forces/torques applied onto the active legs of both the proposed PM and the fingers. Fourth, an analytic solving example of the proposed PM with three fingers is given for illustrating the application of the kinetostatic formulae. Fifth, the workspaces of the proposed PM and one finger are constructed. Finally, the analytic solutions are verified by simulation solutions.