Singular Designs is now on-line

MechGen 3

MechGen 3

Please see our Singular Designs web-site. We look forward to providing our MechGen synthesis software to simplify your linkage design process in SolidWorks. Also see Mechanism Generator.

21st Century Kinematics

Workshop on 21st Century Kinematics

21st Century Kinematics

21st Century Kinematics

The NSF Workshop on 21st Century Kinematics at the 2012 ASME IDETC Conference in Chicago, IL on August 11-12, 2012 consisted of a series of presentations and a book of supporting material prepared by the workshop contributors.

The book is now available at amazon.com: 21st Century Kinematics–The 2012 NSF Workshop.

And here are the seven primary presentations given at the workshop.

  1. Computer-Aided Invention of Mechanisms and Robots. J. Michael McCarthy, Professor, University of California, Irvine.
  2. Mechanism Synthesis for Modeling Human Movement. Vincenzo Parenti-Castelli, Professor, University of Bologna.
  3. Algebraic Geometry and Kinematic Synthesis. Manfred Husty, Professor, University of Innsbruck.
  4. Kinematic Synthesis of Compliant Mechanisms. Larry Howell, Professor, Brigham Young University.
  5. Kinematics and Numerical Algebraic Geometry. Charles Wampler, Technical Fellow, General Motors Research and Development.
  6. Kinematic Analysis of Cable Robotic Systems. Vijay Kumar, Professor, University of Pennsylvania.
  7. Protein Kinematics. Kazem Kazerounian, Professor, University of Connecticut.

Colleagues joined in with two additional presentations:

Many thanks to the contributors and the attendees for an outstanding workshop.

Update: The presentation links have been fixed.

Mechanism and Robotics Notes

The server in our UCI Robotics and Automation Laboratory has been revived (thank you Kaustubh). This means the links to course notes and to Mathematica notebooks have been reestablished. Synthetica.eng.uci.edu now links to my web-page which needs work. A laboratory page that will replace this soon.

Rectilinear Suspension

Rectilinear eight-bar suspension

This is a design concept for a rectilinear eight-bar suspension. It does not manage body roll but it does provide compact large travel.

Rectilinear Eight-bar

Rectilinear eight-bar linkage

This animation was prepared by Yang Liu for a linkage designed by Kaustubh Sonawale. The eight-bar linkage guides the platform in the approximation to rectilinear motion.

Rectilinear Link

Six-bar linkage with rectilinear moving link

This is an animation of a Watt I six-bar linkage with a translating link that does not rotate (select the video to begin the animation). This is obtained using GeoGebra to execute a construction described by E. A. Dijksman in his book Motion Geometry of Mechanisms.

Rectilinear Linkage

Rectilinear Linkage

California Challenge Tustin

KOCE reports on the California Challenge

This video is a news report on the UCI California Challenge:  KOCE video.

There is also information at the site: https://storify.com/ucirvine/solar-decathlon-and-xpo-2013-uc-irvine

 

KOCE California Challenge

KOCE California Challenge

Kinematics and Polynomials

Kinematics and Polynomials–available on a Mac

Until yesterday, my iBooks Introduction to Theoretical Kinematics and Kinematics and Polynomials were available only on the iPad, but now with OSX Mavericks they are available on any Mac. Please give it a try. You can download a sample at this link: Kinematics and Polynomials sample.

California Challenge Test Day

Preparing for the California Challenge

California Challenge Test Day

California Challenge Test Day

Some of the cars being prepared for the California Challenge on Saturday, October 5, 2013 at the Orange County Great Park.

Mechanical Characters

Mechanical characters

Disney Research guides two degree-of-freedom open chains using the coupler curve of a geared five-bar linkage to obtain geared seven-bar and nine-bar linkages, which they use to move the front and rear legs of their Cyber Tiger. By connecting the driving gears of the four legs, they obtain a one degree-of-freedom system that animates the Cyber Tiger.

The computational design system uses an optimization routine to adjust the coupler curve of the five-bar linkage to approximate a given curve in order to guide the system in a desired movement. The results are terrific, and look a lot like the mechanical toys of the past. Select this link for more information.