  The determination of the mobility of parallel mechanisms (PM) is a
fundamental problem. An automatic and intelligent analysis platform will be a
significant tool for the design and optimization of mechanical systems. Based
on the theory of position and orientation characteristics (POC) equations, a
systematic approach to computer-aided mobility analysis of PMs is presented in
this paper. First, a digital model for topological structures which has a
mapping relationship with position and orientation characteristics of mechanism
is proposed. It describes not only the dimension of the motion output, but also
gives the mapping relationship between the output characteristic and the axis
of the kinematic joints. Secondly, algorithmic rules are established that
convert the union and intersection operations of POC into the binary logical
operations and the automatic analysis of POC are realized. Then, the algorithm
of the automatic mobility analysis of PMs and its implementation with VC++ are
written .The mobility and its properties (POC) will also be analyzed and
displayed automatically after introducing by users of the data of topological
structures representation. Finally, typical examples are provided to show the
effectiveness of the software platform.
