Parallel robots are closed-loop mechanisms presenting very good performances in terms of accuracy, rigidity and ability to manipulate large loads. Parallel robots have been used in a large number of applications ranging from astronomy to flight simulators and are becoming increasingly popular in the field of machine-tool industry. This book presents a complete synthesis of the latest results on the possible mechanical architectures, analysis and synthesis of this type of mechanism. It is intended to be used by students (with over 100 exercises and numerous Internet addresses), researchers (with over 500 references and anonymous ftp access to the code of some algorithms presented in this book) and engineers (for which practical results and applications are presented).

Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Architectures. 3. Jacobian and inverse kinematics. 4. Direct kinematics. 5. Singular configurations. 6. Workspace. 7. Velocity and Acceleration. 8. Static analysis. 9. Dynamics. 10. Design. 11. Conclusion. WEB addresses. Index. References.