Kinematic and Dynamic Analysis of Spatial Six Degree of Freedom ...

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
The introduction of industrial robots was the beginning of a new era in many fields,
especially in manufacturing industry. Eventually, the serial manipulators became an
invaluable tool for a broad range of applications. As the science of machine and mechanisms
develop and the need for higher precision, robustness, stiffness and load-carrying capacity
arise, the parallel manipulators begin to show up.
In 1949, Gough proposed a universal tire test machine (Figure 1.1). However that new
structure did not take attention till mid 60s. In 1965, Stewart used a similar parallel
manipulator to design a flight simulator in his famous study [1] (Figure 1.2). In 1967, an
engineer named Klaus Cappel took the first patent on octahedral hexapod (Figure 1.3) that
was later actually built (Figure 1.4). Even today “Stewart Platform” or “Gough Platform” is
taking attention from researchers.
The main research activity in the field of parallel structure manipulators has began in
80s and the scientific studies, together with real-life application kept a steady growth as it can
be ascertained from the publications and products. In 90s, the Stewart-Gough Platform and
parallel manipulators in general became a popular research topic. In 1995 alone, more than
fifty papers have appeared in this field.
Figure 1.1 – Gough’s universal tire test machine
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