Stewart platform with fixed rotary actuators : a low cost design study

This work presents a design example of a generic six-degree-of-freedom parallel manipulator commonly known as the Stewart platform. It is meant as a practical guideline covering the basic theory of Stewart platforms and the actual low cost realization suitable for rapid prototyping. The inverse kinematics solution and a coarse-grained evaluation are provided for the actually constructed prototype. Additionally, the application of generic Stewart platforms as tool holders in the context of minimally invasive robotic surgery is discussed and a proposal for a surgical robot given.