Workspaces

There are various types of workspace in the

done works, among which the most usual ones are as follows

[9]: (1) Constant orientation workspace: The set of locations

that can be reached by the reference point C with a given orientation;

(2) orientation workspace: The set of orientations

that can be reached while the reference point C is in a fixed

location; (3) maximal workspace: The set of locations that can

be reached by the reference point C with at least one orientation

of the platform; (4) inclusive orientation workspace: all

the locations of the reference point C that may be reached with

at least one orientation among a set defined by ranges on the

orientation angles; (5) dexterous workspace: all the locations

of the reference point P for which all orientations are possible;

(6) total orientation workspace: all the locations of the reference

point P that may be reached with all the orientations

among a set defined by ranges on the orientation angles.

Various approaches have been proposed to determine the

workspaces of parallel mechanisms such as analytic, geometric

and numerical approaches.