Parallel robots are emerging technology which recently receives more and more attention. Although there are several successful examples, there is still a long way to discover the full potential of each type of PR for certain applications. In this sense, the design has to be task specific, to maximize the theoretical advantages while minimizing the disadvantages. Numerous PR prototypes have been built in laboratory in the last three decades, but most of them cannot offer the expected performance. In fact, making a workable PR is a system engineering process, which involves synthesis, component design/selection, analysis, optimization, control, and performance evaluation. However, such a system engineering process is not easy, and there is no effective tool yet to support it. Therefore, a digital tool is urgently required to conduct the design process systematically in a virtual environment, so as to combine the multidisciplinary knowledge together and minimize the cost of prototyping.
Regarding the current trend in PR research, hybrid parallel robots received lots of attention to combine the advantages of both serial and parallel robots. Micro PRs using compliant joints are also a hot topic, targeting at some high-precision microlevel applications, such as fiber alignment. Low-mobility PRs have received continuous investigation, but there are still a number of unsolved challenges, such as assurance of dynamic performance. PRs have been identified as one of the key smart devices for the next manufacturing system; therefore, the integration and application methodologies are also required to be explored.

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