Design Considerations for Manipulator Workspace

Abstract

This paper introduces some basic concepts regarding the workspaces of manipulators. The first part gives a general discussion regarding workspace shapes. Most of the rest of the paper focuses on manipulators with three orthogonal mutually intersecting axes. The structures of the primary and secondary workspaces for such systems are determined and the effects of hand size are examined in detail. Several specific examples are presented to illustrate the basic theory.