Recent research on the design of linkages by Yang Liu has resulted in “Bezier linkages” that can be used to draw arbitrary Bezier curves. The trick is to use trigonometric Bezier curves. This whale consists of four Bezier segments and is drawn by four Bezier linkage elements. This youtube version includes music by Explosions in […]
This second collaboration between Prince EA and Change for Balance won 1st Place at the Film4Climate competition. The winners were announced at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP22). This Film 4 Climate Global Video Competition is organized by Connect 4 Climate.
Beautiful scenes of Cambodia and Thailand and a road trip with an Asian elephant in this featurette make this a much anticipated documentary.
I found this excerpt of the TEDx talk by Bruno Siciliano describing the growing research area of Roboethics to be fascinating and important. Prof. Siciliano is the Director of the ICAROS Center at the Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II. He is co-editor with Oussama Khatib of the first and second editions of the […]
Mechanical systems that draw trigonometric curves provide a versatile way to draw complex curves. Yang Liu designed this serial chain consisting of 14 links coupled by a belt drive to draw the Butterfly curve. The Butterfly curve is an example of a trigonometric plane curve, and our study of Kempe’s design of linkages to draw […]
The 2016 Mechanisms and Robotics conference is part of International Design Engineering Technical Conferences organized by ASME International in Charlotte, North Caroline, August 22-24. Plenary speaker Bernard Roth is the Academic Director of Stanford University’s d.school and the author of the Achievement Habit. For some reason, ASME has broken these links to the 2016 IDETC conference, but you can find […]
MotionGen is a planar four-bar linkage simulation and synthesis app that helps users synthesize planar four-bar linkages by assembling two of the planar RR-, RP- and PR-dyad types, (R refers to a revolute or hinged joint and P refers to a prismatic or sliding joint). The input task is a planar motion given as a set […]
A mechanical computer that draws an algebraic curve is a useful device, and Mathematicians Michael Kapovich and John Millson have shown that a design always exists. This is Yang Liu’s design of a mechanical system that draws an elliptic cubic curve. Here is how it is done. Algebraic curve. An algebraic curve is the set of points P=(x, […]
Yang Liu shows that a simple linkage can draw the trifolium curve. For comparison here is the Kempe linkage that draws a trifolium curve obtained by Alexander Kobel.
Patents including six-bar linkages are rare. Thousands of U.S. Patents have been awarded over the past forty years that involve four-bar linkages, but less than a hundred involve six-bar linkages, Figure 1. Add two bars to a four-bar to get a six-bar. A four-bar linkage, familiar to all mechanical designers, has an input lever connected […]