Abstract:A class of three-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanisms was firstly proposed with alternately used moving platforms, the innovation of which lay in the adoption of alternately used moving platforms structure. This type of mechanism can alternately use two different moving platforms during different stages of the working process to generate two distinct modes of output motion—two translations and one rotation (2T1R) and three translations (3T)—thereby achieving different process operations. It can be regarded as a novel dual-mode output motion mechanism. Furthermore, the topological, kinematic, and dynamic performance of this three-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism under the two different modes was analyzed. This included topological analysis based on position and orientation characteristics (POC), degree of freedom (DOF), and coupling degree (k);the derivation of symbolic forward and inverse position solutions based on its topological characteristics;workspace analysis based on forward position solutions;singularity analysis based on inverse position solutions;dynamic modeling of the mechanism using the virtual work principle and the ordered single-open-chain method, along with the solution of its driving force curves;and the optimization design of the mechanism’s dimensional parameters with the reachable workspace as the optimization objective. Finally, the application of this mechanism as an actuator in laser cutting processes was discussed, and the conceptual design for two process application scenarios—material handling in the 2T1R mode and cutting in the 3T mode—was elaborated. The research result can provide a theoretical basis for the design, analysis, and potential applications of parallel mechanisms with alternately used moving platforms, while also expanding the concept, design methods, and application scope of multi-mode mechanisms.