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Machines
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Mechanical Design of Parallel Manipulators
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Mechanical Design of Parallel Manipulators

A special issue of Machines (ISSN 2075-1702). This special issue belongs to the section "Robotics, Mechatronics and Intelligent Machines".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 2076

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Muhammad Faizan Shah

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Information Systems and Technology, University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT, Australia
Interests: parallel manipulators; biorobotics; control systems
Dr. Zareena Kausar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering & IT, Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan
Interests: robotics; parallel manipulators; control systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Parallel manipulators have garnered increasing attention in recent decades due to their high stiffness, load-carrying capacity, precision, and dynamic performance. Their closed-loop kinematic structures make them ideal for applications in industrial automation, medical robotics, flight simulators, and high-precision machining. However, the mechanical design of such systems remains a complex and multidisciplinary task, involving challenges in kinematic synthesis, workspace optimization, singularity avoidance, and structural integration. This Special Issue focuses on recent advancements in the mechanical design of parallel manipulators, encompassing innovative architectures, modeling techniques, design optimization, prototyping, and practical applications. We invite high-quality contributions that address both theoretical developments and experimental validations, promoting a deeper understanding of the design principles that underpin high-performance parallel manipulators.

Dr. Muhammad Faizan Shah
Dr. Zareena Kausar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Machines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • parallel manipulators
  • mechanical design
  • kinematic synthesis
  • structural optimization
  • robotic mechanisms
  • singularity analysis
  • high-precision robotics

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

36 pages, 2965 KB  
Article
Fourier-Encoded Plücker Line Fields for Globally Bounded Inverse Velocity Mapping of Axisymmetric Parallel Mechanisms
by Yinghao Yuan and Jiang Liu
Machines 2026, 14(4), 370; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines14040370 - 27 Mar 2026
Viewed by 311
Abstract
To address inverse-velocity amplification and numerical instability of axisymmetric parallel mechanisms near dead-point regions, this paper proposes a low-dimensional feature representation and stable inverse-solving framework based on Fourier-encoded Plücker line fields. The limb axes are first represented by normalized Plücker line vectors, and [...] Read more.
To address inverse-velocity amplification and numerical instability of axisymmetric parallel mechanisms near dead-point regions, this paper proposes a low-dimensional feature representation and stable inverse-solving framework based on Fourier-encoded Plücker line fields. The limb axes are first represented by normalized Plücker line vectors, and the discrete rod-axis set is lifted to a circumferential continuous line field. A compact feature vector composed of first-order Fourier coefficients is then constructed, from which the continuous feature coefficients and the corresponding feature Jacobian are derived in closed form. Under constant-length constraints, feasible sensitivity and worst-case gain are introduced to characterize local inverse amplification, and a weighted damped KKT inverse solver is formulated to obtain globally bounded inverse solutions for feature velocities. Numerical results show that, in the ideal axisymmetric model, higher-order harmonics remain at numerical-residual levels and the first-order truncation stays dominant, while the most unfavorable amplification location is governed by the trough of feasible sensitivity. For fully reachable targets, the proposed solver reduces the peak generalized velocity by about 4.32%. For targets containing unreachable components, the damped KKT inverse introduces only a small additional residual while keeping the velocity bounded. Additional tests under mild geometric perturbations show that non-ideal errors mainly affect low-order fitting accuracy and higher-order spectral leakage, whereas the peak worst-case gain and the peak-shaving ratio remain largely stable. These results demonstrate that the proposed framework provides a unified description for inverse velocity mapping of axisymmetric parallel mechanisms with analytical interpretability, global boundedness, and robustness under mild geometric imperfections. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Design of Parallel Manipulators)
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33 pages, 3270 KB  
Article
Design-Orientated Optimization and Motion Planning of a Parallel Platform for Improving Performance of an 8-DOF Hybrid Surgical Robot
by Asna Kalsoom, Muhammad Faizan Shah, Zareena Kausar, Faizan Khan Durrani, Syed Zahid Hussain and Muhammad Umer Farooq
Machines 2025, 13(11), 1038; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines13111038 - 9 Nov 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1263
Abstract
The emergence of surgical robots has revolutionized complex operations, improving precision, lowering operating risks, and shortening recovery periods. Given the merits, an eight degrees of freedom (DOF) hybrid surgical robot (HSR) has been proposed, which leverages the benefits of both serial and parallel [...] Read more.
The emergence of surgical robots has revolutionized complex operations, improving precision, lowering operating risks, and shortening recovery periods. Given the merits, an eight degrees of freedom (DOF) hybrid surgical robot (HSR) has been proposed, which leverages the benefits of both serial and parallel manipulators. However, its performance is hindered by the constrained range of motion of its parallel platform. To address the issue, this research presents a systematic approach for designing and optimizing the proposed HSR. The first step is the design of the HSR, followed by a multi-stage design analysis of its parallel platform, concentrating on kinematic, geometrical, and singularity analysis. Higher values of the condition number indicate singular configurations in the platform’s workspace, highlighting the need for an optimized design. For optimization of the platform, performance parameters like global condition number (GCN), actuator forces, and stiffness are identified. Initially, the design is optimized by targeting GCN only through a genetic algorithm (GA). This approach compromised the other parameters and raised the need for simultaneous optimization employing a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA II). It offered a better trade-off between performance parameters. To further assess the working of the optimized parallel platform, workspace analysis and motion planning of a predefined trajectory have been performed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Design of Parallel Manipulators)
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