Optimised assembly mode reconfiguration of the 5-DOF Gantry-Tau using mixed-integer programming

Pulished version of an article in the journal: Meccanica. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11012-010-9404-y This paper presents a systematic approach based on Mixed Integer Linear Programming for finding an optimal singularity-free reconfiguration path of the 5-DOF Gantry-Tau parallel kinematic machine. The results in the paper demonstrate that singularity-free reconfiguration (change of assembly mode) of the machine is possible, which significantly increases the usable workspace. The method has been applied to a full-scale prototype and the singularity-free path has been verified both in simulations and with physical experiments using real-time control of th…