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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.

This paper deals with a 6R single-loop overconstrained spatial mechanism that has two pairs of revolute joints with intersecting axes and one pair of revolute joints with parallel axes. The 6R mechanism is first constructed from an isosceles triangle and a pair of identical circles. The kinematic analysis of the 6R mechanism is then dealt with using a dual quaternion approach. The analysis shows that the 6R mechanism usually has two solutions to the kinematic analysis for a given input and may have two circuits (closure modes or branches) with one or two pairs of full-turn revolute joints. In two configurations in each circuit of the 6R mechanism, the axes of four revolute joints are coplanar, and the axes of the other two revolute joints are perpendicular to the plane defined by the above four revolute joints. Considering that from one configuration of the 6R mechanism, one can obtain another configuration of the mechanism by simply renumbering the joints, the concept of two-faced mechanism is introduced.

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

It is used the concept of Cartan’s connection and principal fiber bundles to obtain formulas for kinematics and dynamics calculations for robotic manipulators. A principal fiber bundle is a differentiable manifold formed by a base space B (in this case ℝ3)) plus all possible reference frames attached to a point p ∈ B (that is the fiber Sp). Cartan’s connections are the most general way to represent velocity of frames. In previous works, those ideas were applied to fiber bundles with fibers homomorphic to the Lie group SO(3) (or SE(3)). In this paper, it is applied to the case of fibers homomorphic either to the group SU(2) (for rotational motion) or to the group of unit dual quaternions (for translational plus rotational motion). It is also presented some results of calculations, and indicate future directions for research.Copyright © 2015 by ASME

This paper studies the constrained motion of a rigid body such that one or more of its points stays on a sphere or a plane. It extends Innocenti’s spatial Burmester problem from purely spherical constraints to include any combination of spherical and planar constraints for seven position synthesis of a spatial rigid body. The present paper provides a unified formulation using homogeneous coordinates and dual quaternions for simultaneous dimensional and type synthesis of spatial platform linkages and manipulators involving spherical and planar constraints. The algorithm is an extension of our previous work on unified solution for planar Burmester problem for geometric synthesis of planar dyads involving a combination of revolute and prismatic joints.Copyright © 2014 by ASME