Kinematic Analysis of a New Parallel Machine Tool: the Orthoglide

TL;DR

This paper introduces the orthoglide, a novel parallel machine tool with fixed linear joints and a mobile platform, combining advantages of serial and parallel architectures for high-speed machining.

Contribution

The paper presents the design and analysis of the orthoglide, a new parallel kinematic machine with a regular Cartesian workspace and improved dynamic performance.

Findings

Orthoglide offers a regular Cartesian workspace.

It combines advantages of serial and parallel kinematic machines.

Potential extension to 5-axis machining is explored.

Abstract

This paper describes a new parallel kinematic architecture for machining applications: the orthoglide. This machine features three fixed parallel linear joints which are mounted orthogonally and a mobile platform which moves in the Cartesian x-y-z space with fixed orientation. The main interest of the orthoglide is that it takes benefit from the advantages of the popular PPP serial machines (regular Cartesian workspace shape and uniform performances) as well as from the parallel kinematic arrangement of the links (less inertia and better dynamic performances), which makes the orthoglide well suited to high-speed machining applications. Possible extension of the orthoglide to 5-axis machining is also investigated.