Computer-Based Kinematical Analysis of Spatial Multiloop Mechanisms
Abstract In this paper a method for the automatical analysis of the kinematics of spatial multiloop mechanisms is presented. The mechanism is regarded as a multibody system. Connecting joints are revolute joints (R), prismatic joints (P), spherical joints (S) and all further joints that can be modelled as combinations of these joints. The concept allows the application for a user without deeper theoretical knowledge of spatial kinematics. Special effort has been taken in the reduction of the number of nonlinear constraint equations that must be solved. This is done by using an approach, yielding a suitable structure of the system of nonlinear constraint equations, where only those with interesting unknown joint coordinates must be solved. An optimized solution of these equations allows in many cases a partly and sometimes even a completely explicit solution of the constraint equations. The described method is also applicable to overconstrained spatial mechanisms.