A procedure to assess the degree of reconfigurability of one machine and its application to a modular PKM machine

Reconfigurable machines are built based on modularity considerations to enable the installation of the capacity and functionalities needed exactly when needed. Parallel Kinematic Machine (PKM) architectures can fit such a concept very well, due to intrinsic modularity and agile structure. In this paper we approach the issue of measuring the degree of reconfigurability at machine level, describing a general procedure for that and applying it to a particular parallel kinematic robot, named Morpheum (MOdular Reconfigurable Parallel Upgradable Machine). This machine was designed, developed and built to achieve high reconfigurability mostly in pick and place applications. The possibility to come up with such an a priori measure may help the decision maker to select the most appropriate machine in highly dynamic contexts.