Parallel Robots, Hexapods, Stewart platforms

Welcome to the most comprehensive on-line resource in the field of parallel robots (hexapods, Gough-Stewart platforms, parallel kinematic machines, motion bases, etc.).

What's New?

Tweets by @ibonev

New book on robot singularities
Springer has just published a new on robot singularities. It comes with a great .

Some robotics labs in Iran are impressive
The at the University of Tehran has developed two parallel robots (TripTaar and QuattroTar) as well as other robot prototypes (see this ).

DexTAR :: An affordable educational parallel robot
is a spin-off of our robotics lab.

Numbers matter
In 2012, ParalleMIC attracted 21,032 unique visitors (nearly the same as in 2011). Most visits came from the US (4,363), France (1,948), Germany (1,863), Canada (1,636), China (1,416), India (1,16), and the UK (1,066). Other than this home page, which was visited 11,493 times, the four most popular web pages were the (9,435 hits), (4,682 hits), the (3070 hits), and the (2,798 hits).

RoKiSim :: Robot Kinematics Simulation Software
does not function with parallel robots yet, but it's free and worth the try.

Yet another hexapod, but this one from Newport
Newport has launched a small for precision positioning.

Should we take impact factors seriously?
Read this exclusive , the first after a long pause, and you will learn the answer.

A novel planar parallel robot
PI, the indisputable industry leader in parallel kinematics, has launched yet another parallel robot. The robot is based on a 3-RPR planar parallel mechanism with closed-form direct kinematics.

Delta robots now come in yellow too
It's official – now offers Delta robots too. The new M-1iA robot, however, comes optionally with a 2-DOF wrist.

A fourth Java applet has been added
Hopefully, students will now better understand Euler angles and consecutive rotations with this new .

Yet another Delta robot
That the Delta robot is the most successful parallel robot is common knowledge. But this new Delta will finally bring parallel robots to the mass market. The haptic device is sold for $250.

The fastest parallel robot
Adept Technology released the , which at 240 cycles per minute is industry's fastest pick-and-place robot. The robot was invented by Dr. François Pierrot and his team, in collaboration with Fatronik. Adept has already sold more than 200 Quattro robots.

Probably the most intriguing 1-DOF parallel robot...
Read about the – an innovative watch winder based on an amazing 1-DOF wobbling three-legged parallel robot.

Looks like yet another hexapod but it's not!
Read about the – an original flexible fixturing by ABB.

Tired of hexapod motion bases?
This has modified the well-known 3-RPS parallel robot and made an innovative 3-DOF ride simulator that I wish I had at home. More that 40 of these motion systems have already been sold.

It's raining Delta robots...
The is the latest offspring of the Delta robot democratization. The new Delta is manufactured by ELAU, Schneider Electric’s packaging automation division.

And another Delta robot...
FAUDE Group now offers the , which is basically a range of linear Delta robots for various applications.

The golden age of parallel robots?
ELAU has also launched a 3-axis pick-and-place parallel robot called . The new robot is obviously a lower-cost alternative to current Deltas (which typically cost $60,000).

More simple but effective novel designs
builds both ELAU's parallel robots, under the names and .

A new motion system with only three legs
is the latest 3-DOF motion platform developed by Bosch Rexroth. This motion simulatior is a parallel mechanism allowing vertical translation and rotation about horizontal axes.

The first "two-mode" three-axes PKM
Simplex now offers a one-of-a-kind three-axes PKM called . This reconfigurable PKM alows one translation and one of two possible rotations.

A promising new software package for parallel robots
is a new Russian project for the development of a free software package for simulating mechanisms.

A simple four-bar mechanism...
The is nothing but a four-bar mechanism that holds a pen, yet it gets tremendous media coverage.

Certainly the most precise hexapod among large ones
was quitely developing hexapod CMMs for the last three decades. But now this Russian company offers a large number of high-precision hexapod CMMs.

Delta robots get smaller and smaller
starts commercializing CSEM's Pocket Delta robots.

Main reference books

Parallel Robots by J.-P. Merlet.

Type Synthesis of Parallel Mechanisms by X. Kong and C.M. Gosselin. Also available in Russian.

Structural Synthesis of Parallel Robots by G. Gogu.

Robot Analysis: The Mechanics of Serial and Parallel Manipulators by L.-W. Tsai.

The Numerical Solution of Systems of Polynomials: Arising in Engineering and Science by Andrew J. Sommese and Charles W. Wampler II.

Last Update: August 27, 2014