Patent ID: 7707907

Claim:
A manipulator for supporting and displacing an object, comprising: a base; a moving portion adapted to support the object; at least three articulated support legs each having at least three joints and extending between the moving portion and the base for supporting the moving portion, each of the articulated support legs being connected to the base by a first translational joint, with one of the articulated legs having a joint sequence being translational-translational-rotational from the first translational joint, the articulated support legs being arranged with respect to one another between the base and the moving portion so as to restrict movement of the moving portion to displacements in a plane in two translational degrees of freedom and one rotational degree of freedom with respect to the base, with a decoupled displacement of the moving portion along one of the two translational degrees of freedom and a decoupled displacement of the moving portion along the rotational degree of freedom both resulting from actuation of at most two of the first translational joints; and at least three actuators being each operatively connected to a different one of the first translational joints so as to selectively control the displacements of the moving portion in any one of the three degrees of freedom of the moving portion.