A hexapod can be designed such that none of the heavy motors and servos need do more than gently oscillate. The moving mass is therefore comparatively small, minimizing inertia and machine power needed to overcome it. Also because all the necessary freedom of movement is enabled by the mechanism, the workpiece and its generally heavy bed can be stationary. A good hexapod with well-designed linkages can articulate farther than the usual tilt stages. The mechanism can also reach over a larger area than its own framework and is therefore very compact for its working volume.
Multiaxis stages are available to increase the dexterity even further.
Struts, which carry only axial loads, can be scaled up economically. Doubling their diameter allows a fourfold increase in length with a sixty-fourfold increase in working volume, or a sixteenfold increase in maximum loading. This can be achieved with only a modest increase in weight and cost. According to Mr Whitehouse, this has proved to be a challenging problem for most earlier attempts at developing a hexapod platform machine tool. This development, he adds, reduces the number of nodes to nine, improves the stiffness, simplifies the control mathematical transforms, and allows for automated calibration.