Abstract
In this paper a new flight simulator using a planar type of tripod parallel mechanism has been proposed and designed. The parallel mechanism has three legs translating on ground. The software system for the flight simulator consists of the communication programs, washout algorithm, inverse kinematics algorithm and the virtual motion simulator. The analytical and experimental results show that the planar type of tripod parallel mechanism has enough workspace and tilt angles to simulate aircraft takeoffs and turns, and can simulate faster sustained translational acceleration than the conventional Stewart-Gough platform type of parallel mechanism.
