General Formula of Mobility Calculation for Planar Mechanism

Deficiencies are existed for currently formulas of mobility calculation for planar mechanism. They are not suitable for planar mechanism with virtual constraints and the number of general constraints equal to 4. To solve the problem, the new concepts of virtual loop, virtual-loop constraint and virtual pair are defined to establish a general f ormula for DOF of planar mechanism; the calculation method for virtual-loop constraint and the mobility of link-group are also given. It is proved that the new formula is correct, general, simple and effective through the mobility analysis of several different kinds of planar mechanisms.