The univariate closure conditions of all fully parallel planar robots derived from a single polynomial

Abstract

The real roots of the univariate polynomial closure condition of a planar parallel robot determine the solutions of its forward kinematics. This paper shows how the univariate polynomials of all fully parallel planar robots can be derived directly from that of the widely known 3-RPR robot by simply formulating these polynomials in terms of distances and oriented areas. This is a relevant result because it avoids the case-by-case treatment that requires different sets of variable eliminations to obtain the univariate polynomial of each fully-parallel planar robot.