Serial vs parallel kinematics

English not your first language ??

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kinematics

????

Even though it's not, what is unclear on the question I asked??

Serial vs parallel mechnical systems ???

I guess I missed the point all together.

Google did find one referance to "serial mechanical systems" and a bunch
of "parallel mechanical systems".

So, I missed it, what are you talking about ???

donald

   I wondered myself, and look what I found through Google:

http://www.hexapods.net/

I just learned something, thanks.

donald

Hi Donald
THE book "Parallel Robots" from JP Merlet might help ...

ciao
Pierre

Here are some generalizations.

Serial systems:
- maximize the range of motion for a given number of joints
- have easily-derived kinematic equations
- are easily controlled

Parallel systems:
- are stiffer and more precise
- have hard-to-derive kinematic equations

Most information on such topics cannot be found on the internet.  Try
your local university's engineering library for books and journal
articles.  Stuff like the International Journal of Robotics Research
(the current sample issue at www.ijrr.org even touches on these issues).
  The IEEE also has some robotics conferences and journals that may be
of interest.

Later,
Daniel

Additionally, parallel systems are a good deal more expensive.

But their stability is so much greater than that of serial systems that
for some apps it makes sense.

-Mike

Not exactly true:

serial: easy direct kinematics, difficult inverse kinematics
parallel:easy inverse, difficult direct


Not true, see:

http://www-sop.inria.fr/coprin/equipe/merlet/merlet_eng.html
http://www.parallemic.org/

Additionally, parallel systems are a good deal more expensive.

That's hard to state because you are comparing 2 very different systems. Like
comparing a car
and a motor bike. Same league but very different performances

But their stability is so much greater than that of serial systems that
for some apps it makes sense.

Sure but nowadays these niche markets are numerous: flight simulator, telescope,
vibration, very fast packaging,
precise positionning and so on...

Thank you very much for answers, I am working in the field of robotics
for years, so I know the standard issues quite well. Infact I searched
for some articles summarizing this topic. Tsai or Merlet are dealing
with the topic, but it's not the goal of their books.

thanks
Pierre