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In this study, serial and parallelogram linkage structures are evaluated and compared, on the basis of kinematic performance measures such as workspace and manipulability. Tradeoff relationships between workspace manipulability are established for both the structures, using the configuration of the arm lengths as a design variable. The structures are also analyzed on the basis of their manipulation ability in specific regions of their workspace, providing additional design criteria during the selection of the kinematic structure in the synthesis of industrial articulated robots.

Knowledge based on experience and rules of thumb is often used during the concept selection phase of robot design since it could be extremely time consuming to perform the complete robot design process on all the possible structural alternatives. This article proposes an efficient procedure to perform structural evaluation of anthropomorphic manipulators with and without parallel transmission linkages for applicability in new generations of light weight and cost effective industrial robots. In this study the structural evaluation is performed based on the static elasticity behaviour of the two manipulator structures with emphasis on improving the structural rigidity without jeopardizing the control characteristics with respect to static deflection and natural frequencies.

This study proposes a methodology for comparing the dynamic effectiveness of two different kinematic structures based on actuator torque requirement criteria. The objective of this comparison is to find out what type of robot structure is best suited as a lightweight industrial robot in the conceptual design phase. As a proof of concept this method is applied to compare Serial and Parallelogram linkage anthropomorphic kinematic structures with respect to torque requirements. Several directions for future research are discussed to include additional comparison criteria and also to extend the application of the proposed method to compare two versions of same structure in the design phase of light weight industrial robots.