The movement of this car door is guided by a spherical Watt I six-bar linkage. This is a test of our prototype MechGen 5 design system. This will be the first design system for these linkages and is a another example of the work by Kaustubh Sonawale and Alex Arredondo.
Mark Plecnik designed this Stephenson II function generator by specifying eight accuracy points and solving the resulting 22 polynomial equations using the numerical homotopy solver, Bertini. He then used Mathematica to examine the 68,000 roots to find 38 useful linkages. SolidWorks was used to generate the solid model and animate the design.
Mark Plecnik designed this system to illustrate the movement of a wide range of specialized linkages and gear trains.
Svoboda: Computing mechanisms and linkages
Select this link to download a .pdf version of A. Svoboda, Computing Mechanisms and Linkages, Dover Publications, 1965, (17MB). This book was originally published by McGraw-Hill in 1948.
Kempe: How to draw a straight line
Select this link to download a .pdf version of A. B. Kempe, How to Draw a Straight Line, MacMillan and Co., London, 1877. (1.8MB)
Colin Sledge designed this linkage to guide an airfoil section around the main spar. By adjusting the amount of twist the entire wing acts as an aileron to control the aircraft.
Adam Shutt designed this six-bar linkage to guide the movement of the rear spoiler for a high performance car.
Yang Liu designed a four-bar and a six-bar linkage to guide a stacked bookcase into and out of reach. This video shows the two designs.
From my family to yours, all the blessings of the season.
Most all of the Materials Science Engineering majors join in on the BME Senior Projects, except for the Solar Airplane group. Select this link: MSE Solar Airplane Poster