Search

This paper deals with the construction and reconfiguration analysis of a spatial mechanism composed of four circular translation (G) joints. Two links connected by a G joint, which can be in different forms such as a planar parallelogram, translate along a circular trajectory with respect to each other. A spatial 4G mechanism, which is composed of four G joints, usually has one degree-of-freedom (DOF). First, a 2-DOF spatial 4G mechanism is constructed. Then, a novel variable-DOF spatial 4G mechanism is constructed starting from the 2-DOF 4G mechanism using the approach based on screw theory. Finally, the reconfiguration analysis is carried out in the configuration space using dual quaternions and tools from algebraic geometry. The analysis shows that the variable-DOF spatial 4G mechanism has one 2-DOF motion mode and one to two 1-DOF motion modes and reveals how the 4G mechanism can switch among these motion modes. By removing one link from two adjacent G joints each and two links from each of the remaining two G joints, we can obtain a queer-rectangle and a queer-parallelogram, which are the generalization of the queer-square or derivative queer-square in the literature. The approach in this paper can be extended to the analysis of other types of coupled mechanisms using cables and gears and multi-mode spatial mechanisms involving G joints.

Recently, we developed a novel approach to the problem of geometric design of 5-SS platform linkages such that its moving points are constrained on a sphere or a plane. Dual quaternions are used to obtain the bilinear design equations with seven design variables, which can be further recast into a linear equation with 16 design variables with a set of simple proportional relationships. This leads to a novel algorithm that reduces the kinematic design problem to that of null space analysis followed by a generalized eigenvalue problem. In this paper, we show that the same approach leads to a unified algorithm for synthesizing planar, spherical and spatial Bennet mechanisms with four revolute joints as over-constrained four-revolute jointed mechanisms in three dimensional space. Numerical examples are given in the end.Copyright © 2016 by ASME

Although kinematic analysis of conventional mechanisms is a well-documented fundamental issue in mechanisms and robotics, the emerging reconfigurable mechanisms and robots (or mechanisms and robots with multiple operation modes) require re-examining this fundamental issue. Recent advances in mathematics, especially algebraic geometry and numerical algebraic geometry, make it possible to develop an efficient method for the kinematic analysis of not only conventional mechanisms and robots but also reconfigurable mechanisms and robots. This paper first presents a method for setting up a set of kinematic loop equations for mechanisms using dual quaternions. Using this approach, a set of kinematic loop equations of a spatial mechanism is composed of six equations. The effectiveness of the proposed kinematic loop equations is then demonstrated by deriving the explicit input-output equations of a line symmetric 1-DOF (degree-of-freedom) 7R single-loop spatial mechanism, the re-configuration analysis of a novel multi-mode 1-DOF 7R spatial mechanism. In the former case, an explicit input-output equation of degree 8 is derived. In the latter case, it is found that the 7R multi-mode mechanism has three motion modes, including a planar 4R mode, an orthogonal Bricard 6R mode, and a plane symmetric 6R mode. Unlike the 7R multi-mode mechanisms in the literature, the 7R multi-mode mechanism presented in this paper does not have a 7R mode in which all the seven R joints can move simultaneously.Copyright © 2016 by ASME