Animations of linkage movement.
This is the first assignment in my graduate mechanism synthesis class. It is supposed to be a flower with petals that open and close guided by a four-bar linkage. I did not realize that the shape I gave them for the petals would look so scary, but maybe it is appropriate for Halloween. This design was developed by Hsuan-Chen Wan.
This is an example of a shape-morphing linkage resulting from the research collaboration James Schmiedeler and Andrew Murray. This is an old design dating to when James was a Professor at Ohio State University. He is now at Notre Dame. Andrew Murray is a Professor at the University of Dayton.
This four-bar linkage was designed by Kaustubh Sonawale using MechGen to deploy the spare tire of a pickup truck.
This linkage was designed to guide a powered screw driver through a specified set of locations to automatically insert and tighten bolts. The design is achieved by constraining an RPR serial chain by adding two RR dyads. The work is a collaboration between Kevin Hung and Mark Plecnik.
This is a revised version of the rice transplanter linkage designed by Mark Plecnik. It uses an RPR chain to provide the basic movement, which is then constrained by the addition of two RR dyads. The result is a six-bar linkage that provides a more direct movement from selection of the seedling to insertion in the ground.
This spherical four-bar linkage was designed by Kaustubh Sonawale to guide the wings of the Icon A5 from deployed to stowed positions and back.
This version of Mechanism Generator uses five orientations of a moving body to design a spherical four-bar linkage. As with other versions of Mech Gen the system searches in tolerance zones around the task positions to find a number of useful designs. This is more good work by the team of Alex Arredondo and Kaustubh Sonawale.
This linkage is designed to guide the bobbin thread of a rotating weaver to knit the reinforcement web for hosing. Though only one linkage is shown, there is one linkage for each bobbin. This design was developed by Mark Plecnik with help from Kaustubh Sonawale.
This shows the wing movement of the Icon A5 as guided by a spherical four-bar linkage. This is a new design by Kaustubh Sonawale which ensures the wing clears the horizontal stabilizers in the rear as it moves from the deployed to folded positions and back again.
This is a robotic gripper designed by Andrea Carli and Kaustubh Sonawale. It uses a six-bar linkage for the primary movement and a slider adjustment to provide a gripping fine movement.