TY - JOUR
T1 - Variable degree-of-freedom spatial mechanisms composed of four circular translation joints
AU - Kong, Xianwen
N1 - Funding Information:
The author would like to thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK, for the support under Grant No. EP/T024844/1.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 by ASME JUNE 2021, Vol. 13 / -1
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Circular translation joint
KW - Dual quaternions
KW - G joint
KW - Mechanism synthesis
KW - Reconfiguration analysis
KW - Theoretical kinematics
KW - Variable-DOF mechanism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107911978&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1115/1.4050152
DO - 10.1115/1.4050152
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85107911978
SN - 1942-4302
VL - 13
JO - Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics
JF - Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics
IS - 3
M1 - 031007
ER -