Mechanical Design 101 » Robotics Information

SolidWorks Mechanism Generator

admin — Sat, 08 May 2010 05:17:32 +0000

Mechanism Generator is a SolidWorks add-in that assists in generating solid models of four-bar and six-bar linkages. It designed to be used in coordination with our Mathematica design software, which is freely available.

Parallel Mechanisms information center

admin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:54:12 +0000

Ilian Bonev maintains bibliography and patent databases on parallel mechanisms and much more at ParallelMIC. Access it at the link http://www.parallemic.org/

Parallel Mechanisms information center

Elementary Robotics

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:07:53 +0000

The basic properties of robots can developed by studying planar serial chains. Select this link for my notes on elementary robotics:
http://synthetica.eng.uci.edu/~mccarthy/mechanicaldesign101/McCarthyNotes-5.pdf

Elementary Robotics

DC motor torque and power

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:10:27 +0000

A copy of my notes on DC motor torque and power can be downloaded at the link:
http://synthetica.eng.uci.edu/~mccarthy/mechanicaldesign101/McCarthyNotes-1.pdf

Motor Torque and Power

DC motor basics

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:49:36 +0000

The basic principles of DC motors are presented by Joe Wolfe of the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) at the link:
http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/jw/electricmotors.html

Phyclips from UNSW

Northwestern University (Chicago, Illinois) presents the basics of a DC motor in the Wiki page:
http://hades.mech.northwestern.edu/wiki/index.php/Brushed_DC_Motor_Theory

Northwestern University Wiki page

Comparison of Klann and Jansen leg linkages

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:54:45 +0000

Joseph Klann provides a useful comparison of the leg designs for his Mondo Spider and Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest at the link:
http://www.mechanicalspider.com/comparison.html

Mondo Spider walking machine

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:29:26 +0000

Here is a walking machine called the Mondo Spider:
Click here to view the embedded video.

The leg of this walking machine is described in US Patent 6,260,862 awarded to Joseph Klann. Access it through the link:
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=70YHAAAAEBAJ&dq=6,260,862

Wikipedia calls this the Klann linkage described here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klann_Linkage

The leg of the mondo spider has the topology known as a Stephenson six-bar.

Theo Jansen’s walking machine

admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:43:30 +0000

Theo Jansen builds amazing walking machines as can be seen in this video:
Click here to view the embedded video.

Each leg is an eight-bar linkage. The Wolfram Demonstration Project models this linkage in a Mathematica notebook. See the link:

http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ATheoJansenWalkingLinkage/