Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms

GNK Power DroidMDA

GNK Steerable Robot Walker

This walking robot was designed and built by Tom Nguyen, Jonathan…
Ken’s Tank Walker

Ken’s Tank Walker

This robot walker has two drive motors, one for each side. Four…
Ken’s Perry Walker

Ken’s Perry Walker

This is the latest walker design from Ken Nguyen. His designs…
A Walking Robot with Four Legs and Two Actuators

A Walking Robot with Four Legs and Two Actuators

This walking robot has four legs and only two actuators. Usually…
Fall 2022 MAE 245 Halloween Robots

Fall 2022 MAE 245 Halloween Robots

These Halloween robots were delivering candy at UCI on October…
Kinematics Lecture:  Curvature Theory and Walking Robots

Kinematics Lecture: Curvature Theory and Walking Robots

This lecture describes my approach to project-based learning…
Kinematics Lecture:  Design of a Linkage System to a Draw Curve

Kinematics Lecture: Design of a Linkage System to Draw a Curve

Kempe's Universality Theorem states that every algebraic curve…
Kinematics Lecture:  Six-bar and Eight-bar Linkage Synthesis

Kinematics Lecture: Six-bar and Eight-bar Linkage Synthesis

This is my lecture from the 2014 Kinematics Summer School organized…
Fall 2021 Mechanical Walker Designs

Fall 2021 Mechanical Walker Designs

This video presents the mechanical walker prototypes designed…
MechGen SP for iPad

MechGen Software Privacy Policy

McCarthy Design Associates has developed a variety of linkage…
MDA

Design of Mechanical Walking Robots

Now Available on Amazon In this book, we present the detailed…
Wing Mechanisms

Wing Mechanisms

Repurposing Jansen's Leg Mechanism: Innovative mechanical…
MDA Press

21st Century Kinematics: NSF Workshop

I am pleased to provide the presentations from the 2012 National…
The Bored RobotMDA

The Bored Robot: Controlling Two Drive Motors for a Walking Machine

Brandon Tsuge describes how to assemble the controller for…
Removing Redundant ConstraintsMDA Press

How to Fix SW Motion Analysis Error: Too Many Redundant Constraints

Kevin Chen,  J. Michael McCarthy,  Shaun Bentley The…

Machine Design

DMG-LIB Library

DMG-LIB.org mechanism library

The Digital Mechanism and Gear Library has a terrific collection…
ipad screenshot

MechGen Suspension

MechGen SP MechGen Suspension is an iPad application that…
Veyron W16

W16 Veyron engine

/
This animation shows the W16 Bugatti Veyron engine with four…
V8 Valves

Cam actuation in a V8 engine

/
This animation shows the operation of the cam shaft, lifters…
Diesel Engine

Diesel engine animation

/
This animation shows the part by part assembly of a four cylinder…

Engine animations

/
The web-site AnimatedEngines.com provides animations of a variety…
Spherical Four-bar Linkage Design: Mech Gen 4

Spherical Four-bar Linkage Design: Mech Gen 4

This version of Mechanism Generator uses five orientations of…
Design Exchange

Design Exchange and HCD Connect

/
Interesting examples of web-sites designed to share information…
MechGen 3

Mechanism Generator 3.0

/
Our Mechanism Generator 3.0 software reads a SolidWorks sketch…
MechGen 2

Mechanism Generator 2.0 (MechGen 2)

/
We have a trial version of our Mechanism Generator 2.0 software…

Lecture Notes

BYU Zoom LectureMDA Press

Quaternions in Kinematics: BYU Lecture

Students at BYU formed a study group advised by Prof. Denise…

Introduction to Linkage Synthesis

This introduction to the graduate course ME 322 Kinematic…
Curvature Theory

Curvature Theory for Planar Point Trajectories

These notes for the Stanford University graduate course ME 322…
T2 Two and Three Position Synthesis

Four-bar Linkage Synthesis, Two and Three Task Positions

These notes for the Stanford University course ME 322 Kinematic…
T1 Four-bar Linkage Analysis

Four-bar Linkage Analysis Notes

These notes have been prepared for the Stanford University graduate…
Type synthesis

Type Synthesis, Assur Groups, and Rigidity

These lecture notes introduce students to research on classifying…
MK1 Schematic

MK.1 Mechanical Computer

Nicholas Bodley sent me to www.maritime.org for information about…
Four-bar function generator

Four-bar function generator: Open a door

/
Select this link, Four-bar linkages, for a Geogebra book…
Kinematics Summer School

Kinematics Summer School

/
Profs. Carl Nelson and Anurag Purwar organized a Summer School…
Introduction to Linkages

Introduction to Linkages

/
Please select this link to open the Geogebra Book containing…
Mechanical Advantage

Mechanical Advantage

This video from the University of Dayton narrated by Prof. Andrew…
Svoboda Computing Mechanisms

A. Svoboda: Computing Mechanisms and Linkages

/
Select this link to download a .pdf version of A. Svoboda,…
Kempe Straight Line

A. B. Kempe: How To Draw A Straight Line

/
Select this link to download a .pdf version of A. B. Kempe,…
Workshop Schedule: 21st Century Kinematics

Workshop Presentations: 21st Century Kinematics

/
The NSF Workshop on 21st Century Kinematics at the 2012 ASME…
Wikipedia Logo

Machines on Wikipedia

/
I have spent quite a bit of time revising articles on machines…

Have a linkage design challenge? We can help.

MechGen 3 Contact us on this feedback form. We look forward to providing our MechGen synthesis software to simplify your linkage design process in SolidWorks.

Linkage Synthesis Theory


The mathematical synthesis of linkage movement provides a powerful tool for invention. However, the specified task may not have useful solutions, and the search for successful tasks can be discouraging.

To address this, we automate the search and evaluation process within tolerance zones specified by the designer.  These Mathematica notebooks implement our approach to finding defect-free four-bar linkage designs.


RR Constraint Synthesis for Function Generation

Synthesis of an RR Constraint

Synthesis of an RR Constraint

An important technique in kinematic synthesis is the design of an RR constraint that controls the movement of two joints of an existing serial chain. For a given RR serial chain, like OA shown above, we can specify its movement through five required task positions. This provides the information needed to design an RR constraint, GW above, that ensures the system moves through the required task positions.

This technique is called function generation in the kinematics synthesis literature, because the synthesized RR constraint maintains a specified relationship between the joint angles alpha and beta at joints O and A.

RR-Constraint-Synthesis

Select this link to download our Mathematica notebook: RR-Constraint Synthesis. It uses a given RR chain and the associated task to determine tolerance zones, where it searches for defect-free designs.  As above, this file may download as text file so remove the .txt extension, then it should be readable by Mathematica. If you have any questions, please contact me.


Five-Position Synthesis of a Four-bar Linkage

Here we show a four-bar linkage designed to guide the coupler through five required task positions.

Please download and try our updated Mathematica notebook: Five-Position Synthesis. It searches in the vicinity of the required task for sets of positions that yield defect-free four-bar linkages.  It may download as textfile so remove the .txt extension, then it should be readable by Mathematica.

The video below shows the operation of this notebook.

If you have any problems or advice, please contact me.