• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.2846-2859
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• 1994

This work deals with kinematic analysis of fault-tolerant 3 degree-of-freedom spherical modules which have force redundancies in its parallel structure. The performance of a redundantly actuated four-legged module with no actuator failure, a single actuator failure, partial and half failure of dual actuator are compared to that of a three-legged module, in terms of maximum force transmission ratio, isotropic characteristics, and fault-tolerant capability. Additionally, a system with an excess number of small floating actuators is considered, and the contribution of these small actuators to the force transmission and fault-tolerant capability is evaluated. This study illustrates that the redundant actuation mode allows significant saving of input actuation effort, and also delivers a fault tolerance.