Less degrees of freedom parallel mechanism is widely used in many fields with its unique advantages. A decoupled parallel mechanism with 2 degree-of-freedom translation and 1 degree-of-freedom rotation is presented, and its performance evaluation indices analysis is performed. By the constraint screw method, the motion feature of the mechanism and its number of degree of freedom are analyzed. The constrained equations of the mechanism are established according to the constrained conditions of the pole length. The analytical expression of the forward and inverse position for the mechanism is deduced, and the expression of the Jacobian matrix is derived, which validated the decoupling feature of the mechanism. The singularity of the mechanism is also carried out. The performance evaluation indices for the decoupled parallel mechanism are discussed and the corresponding performance indices analysis of the proposed decoupled parallel mechanism is executed. The novel decoupled parallel mechanism presented herein enriches the parallel mechanism structure, and the definition and analysis of the performance evaluation indices should be meaningful for the further design and optimization of the decoupled parallel mechanism.

The chaos phenomenon often exists in the dynamics system of the mechanism with clearance and friction, which has obvious effect on the stability of the mechanism, then it is worthy of attention for identifying the relationship between the friction coefficient and the stability of the mechanism. Two rotational degrees of freedom decoupled parallel mechanism RU-RPR is taken as the research object. Considering the clearance existing in the revolute pair, Lankarani–Nikravesh contact force model is used to calculate the normal contact force, and the Coulomb friction force model is used to calculate the tangential contact force. The dynamics model is established using Newton–Euler equations, and the Baumgarte stabilization method is used to keep the stability of the numerical analysis. Then, the equations are solved using the fourth adaptive Runge–Kutta method, and the effect of the revolute pair’s clearance on the dynamic behavior is analyzed. Poincare mapping is plotted, and the bifurcation diagrams are analyzed with varying the friction coefficient corresponding to different values of clearance size. The research contents possess a certain theoretical guidance significance and practical application value on the analysis of the chaotic motion and its stability in the dynamics of the parallel mechanism.

No abstract