Previous studies on the optimal operation planning of redundantly actuated parallel mechanisms have focused on optimal torque distribution for a predefined trajectory. However, the optimized result obtained for a predefined trajectory cannot guarantee an optimal operation plan, because the torque distribution ability of a redundantly actuated parallel mechanism is highly dependent on the shape of the end-effector trajectory. Therefore, we can expect the redundantly actuated parallel mechanism performance to be enhanced when both the trajectory and torque distribution are optimized during the optimal operation planning stage. We propose a novel redundantly actuated parallel mechanism optimization procedure that can optimize both the end-effector trajectory and torque distribution. The proposed procedure is composed of two stages of optimizers, i.e. upper- and lower-level optimizers that generate the end-effector trajectory and distribute the torques along the generated trajectory, respectively. Composition of these two stages of the optimization procedure allows optimization of both the trajectory and torque distribution, despite the correlation between them. The proposed optimization procedure is simulated using two types of cost functions. All the simulation results show that the proposed procedure facilitates optimization of the end-effector trajectory and the torque distribution concurrently. Also, the cost function value is minimized to a greater extent than in the result with the optimal torque distribution along the initial trajectory.

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* The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article