Abstract: For revealing the effects of the elastic deformations of linkages in the manipulator of robot driver on shifting displacement and velocity, a rigidflexible coupling kinematics analysis of shifting manipulator is conducted in this paper. Firstly, based on an analysis on the movement principle of shifting manipulator, a kinematics model for shifting manipulator is established, its kinematics equations are derived, and the displacements of gear selecting and gear shifting motor shafts are obtained by using the inverse solving technique of kinematics equations. Then both multirigid body kinematics model and rigidflexible coupling kinematics model for shifting manipulator are set up，on which a comparative simulation on the kinematics of shifting manipulator is conducted with the displacements of gear selecting and gear shifting motor shafts as inputs to analyze the motion trajectory and shift error of shifting manipulator. Finally both simulation and real vehicle test on the shifting displacements and velocities of manipulator are performed with a result showing they are consistent in tendency.

Key words: Key words：Shift manipulator, Kinematics, Rigid-flexible coupling, shifting manipulator, kinematics, rigidflexible coupling