Laboratories have always been at the epicenter of research and development but recently they started to increasingly lead to commercial adaptation of this technology. Spin-off companies now enter the market to compete with the Big Guys that initially made the boom. Laboratory web sites—this dynamic source of information—become more and more elaborate and their growing number calls for a watchful eye.

The list of laboratories is organized by country. Each entry is headed by the name of the laboratory with a link to its web site (if such exists), followed by the name of the university, its location, and by the associated faculty. Then, for some laboratories, an "Overview" is made available and can be accessed by clicking on . Since in some cases, only a part of the research in the laboratory is focused on parallel mechanisms, an additional link is provided in the field "Related Links" that leads directly to the web page presenting the research of interest.

Based on the present list and on our own opinion, we point out the following interesting facts:

Most Popular Parallel Mechanisms: the "agile eye" at Laval University (Canada), the "Delta" robot at EPFL (Switzerland), the "HEXA" robot invented at LIRMM (France) and residing at Tohoku University (Japan);
Most Intriguing Web Site: that of Jean-Pierre Merlet at INRIA (France) followed by that of the Robotics Laboratory at Laval University (Canada);

Enjoy the information and feel free to contact us with any suggestions and comments.

Last Update: January 6, 2005