Session: MR-1-5: Mechanisms Synthesis and Analysis

Paper Number: 117159

117159 - A Unified Real-Time Motion Generation Algorithm for Approximate Position Analysis of Planar N-Bar Mechanisms 

This paper introduces a novel real-time motion simulation algorithm that enables approximate position analysis of planar N-bar linkage mechanisms of arbitrary complexity. The algorithm was designed specifically for implementation in a web-based software platform, although not exclusively, with the aim of facilitating the simulation and design of mechanisms incorporating revolute and prismatic joints, for both students and industry practitioners. To ensure the efficient computation of positions, all geometric and actuation constraints of links in a mechanism were reduced to the same form, enabling the use of a unified approach. A key aspect of the algorithm is the use of a reinterpretation trick to convert all prismatic elements into a combination of links with only revolute joints. This simplification requires only two solvers while providing motion output within a desired degree of error. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm employs a solving path-finding procedure based on mobility analysis to further reduce simulation time. The resulting algorithm offers the ability to simulate serial, parallel, and hybrid mechanisms with any degree-of-freedom. Additionally, the time estimation for the simulation process and the estimation expression of a mechanism's structural complexity are provided. To demonstrate the practical utility of the proposed method, the algorithm is applied to several mechanisms as examples. 

Presenting Author: Zhijie Lyu Stony Brook University

Presenting Author Biography: Research Assistant and main developer for MotionGen

Authors:

Zhijie Lyu Stony Brook University
Wei Liao Stony Brook University
Anurag Purwar Stony Brook University