Kinematics of a novel three DOF translational platform

A novel 3-DOF parallel manipulator is presented that employs only revolute joints and constrains the manipulator output to translational motion. Closed-form solutions are developed for both the inverse and forward kinematics. The inverse kinematics produces four solutions for each leg of the manipulator. In general, the four solutions are realized in only two unique leg configurations. The forward kinematic solution is reduced to a quadratic equation. So that in general, there are two poses the manipulator can assume for a given set of input joint angles.