Linkage Designs

Wing Mechanisms

Wing Mechanisms

Repurposing Jansen's Leg Mechanism: Innovative mechanical…
Removing Redundant ConstraintsMDA Press

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

Kevin Chen,  J. Michael McCarthy,  Shaun Bentley The…
Six-Legged Mechanical Walkers:  Spring 2020 Highlights

Six-Legged Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Highlights

The leg mechanisms of these six-legged walkers use two coordinated…
Four-Legged Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Highlights

Four-Legged Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Highlights

The design of these four-legged walkers relies on Curvature theory…
Walker Teams 2, 4 and 5MDA

Four-legged Mechanical Walkers: Teams 2, 4 and 5

Here are videos of the designs for the four legged mechanical…
Mechanical Walker designed by Team 6MDA

Four Legged Mechanical Walker: Teams 1, 3 and 6

Here are videos of the designs for the four legged mechanical…
Leg MechanismJMM

Construction of a Leg Mechanism

This is a series of four videos that show how to: Specify…
Rectilinear Six-bar

Rectilinear Six-Bar (Candy Coating Linkage)

Jeff Glabe designed this six-bar linkage to move through six…
Hummingbird Spatial Six-bar

Hummingbird Spatial Six-bar Linkage

This spatial six-bar linkage provides a compact flapping wing…
Flapping Wing Prototype

Flapping Wing Prototype

This is the manufacturing prototype for the flapping wing mechanism…
Soil Conditioning Port Valve

RPR-2SS Soil Conditioning Valve

This is an animation by Benjamin Liu of a spatial RPR-2SS six-bar…
Flapping wing mechanism

Flapping Wing Mechanism

Benjamin Liu prepared this animation of the flapping wing…
Cursive character for dragon

Linkages draw Bezier curves

Here is an example of our Bezier curve drawing linkages. The…
Yang Signature

Linkage that signs your name

Yang Liu has developed Bezier linkages that trace trigonometric…
Prototype Butterfly Linkage

Manufacturing Prototype for the Butterfly Linkage

This animation is taken from Yang Liu's detailed design drawings…
Whale Linkage

Bezier Linkages

Recent research on the design of linkages by Yang Liu has…
Butterfly drawing mechanism

Design of Drawing Mechanisms

Mechanical systems that draw trigonometric curves provide a versatile…
Mechanisms and Robotics Conference

2016 Mechanisms and Robotics Conference

The 2016 Mechanisms and Robotics conference is part of International…
MotionGen Horse

Motion Gen Linkage Design App

MotionGen is a planar four-bar linkage simulation and synthesis…
Trifolium Contra-parallelograms

Trifolium using contra-parallelograms

Yang Liu shows that a simple linkage can draw the trifolium curve. For…
Fourier Curve Tracing

Fourier Curve Tracing

This animation by Yang Liu is inspired by the mechanical Fourier…
SIAM News

SIAM News: Biologically inspired linkage design

This article by Jon Hauenstein with me for SIAM News (Society…
Heart Linkage

Heart Trajectory

This mechanical system was designed by Yang Liu to trace…
Folding Bicycle

Full Size Folding Bicycle

Michael Sutherland and his team at Zennen Engineering designed…
Target Profiles for Morphing Linkage

Actuating Morphing Linkages

Lawrence Funke and Prof. James Schmiedeler of the University…
Fourbar Extrusion

A four-bar linkage provides a shape changing extrusion die

Fourbar Extrusion Prof. Andrew Murray and his team at the…
Leg Mechanisms

Walking Machines

/
Leg Mechanisms An outcome of Mark Plecnik's research on the…
Another version of the six-bar folding linkage

Another version of the six-bar folding linkage

This is a little more compact version of the six-bar folding…
Six-bar linkage folds a structure

Six-bar linkage folds a structure

This six-bar linkage was designed to deploy and stow a structure.…
Eight-bar Port Closure Tool

Eight-bar Port Closure Tool

This port closure tool curls back on itself to provide internal…
Four-bar function generator

Four-bar function generator: Open a door

/
Select this link, Four-bar linkages, for a Geogebra book…
Introduction to Linkages

Introduction to Linkages

/
Please select this link to open the Geogebra Book containing…
Linkage Design for Wing Flapping

Linkage Design for Wing Flapping

Mark Plecnik shows that six-bar function generators can be used…
Disney Prototyping System

Linkage Synthesis at Disney Research Zurich

/
Researchers at Disney Research Zurich provide yet an other design…
Demining Training Aids

3D Printed Demining Training Aids

Training people to diffuse landmines and other live ordnance…
Eight-bar motion amplifier

Eight-bar motion amplifier

Kaustubh Sonawale and Yang Liu worked together on this design…
Rectilinear Suspension

Rectilinear eight-bar suspension

/
This is a design concept for a rectilinear eight-bar suspension.…
Rectilinear Eight-bar

Rectilinear eight-bar linkage

/
This animation was prepared by Yang Liu for a linkage designed…
Rectilinear Link

Six-bar linkage with rectilinear moving link

/
This is an animation of a Watt I six-bar linkage with a translating…
Mechanical Characters

Mechanical characters

/
Disney Research guides two degree-of-freedom open chains using…
Ballistic Function

Mechanization of the ballistic function

/
This Stephenson III six-bar linkage sets the elevation of…
Retractable handle

Retractable handle

This six-bar linkage was developed at the request of a designer…
Tensegrity Linkage

Tensegrity Linkage

/
This is a design concept that uses tensegrity beam elements…
Kempe Linkages

Translational Linkages from Kempe

/
These linkages guide a platform in straight-line translation.…
Kassim Car Door

An RSSR-TS Car Door Linkage

/
Kassim Abdul-Sater provides this CATIA animation of a spatial…
Spherical Car Door Linkage

Spherical Watt I six-bar up close

/
This view shows the operation of the spherical Watt I six-bar…
Spherical Car Door

Spherical Watt I six-bar linkage

/
The movement of this car door is guided by a spherical Watt I…
Six-bar Function Generator

Stephenson II six-bar linkage function generator

/
Mark Plecnik designed this Stephenson II function generator by…
Plecnik Art

Mark Plecnik’s Art Project

/
Mark Plecnik designed this system to illustrate the movement…
Cameron Turner’s Wheelbarrow Linkage

Cameron Turner’s Wheelbarrow Linkage

Cameron Turner designed a four-bar and a six-bar linkage to assist…
Aileron Linkage

Colin Sledge’s Aileron Linkage

/
Colin Sledge designed this linkage to guide an airfoil section…
Brendan Smith’s Monitor Linkage

Brendan Smith’s Monitor Linkage

Brendan Smith designed this six-bar linkage to guide a big-screen…

Adam Shutt’s Automotive Spoiler Linkage

/
Adam Shutt designed this six-bar linkage to guide the movement…
bookcase linkage

Yang Liu’s Bookcase Linkages

/
Yang Liu designed a four-bar and a six-bar linkage to guide a…
Kassim Eightbar

Kassim’s Eight-bar Linkage

/
Kassim Abdul-Sater designed this eight-bar linkage to guide a…

Six-bar folding handle

/
Siqi Shi designed this six-bar linkage to guide a folding handle…
Flower linkage

Six-bar flower

/
Tim Rasmussen designed this six-bar linkage to guide the petals…
Butterfly six-bar

Six-bar butterfly

/
Mohamed Ali designed this six-bar linkage to guide the wings…
Another Flower

Another four-bar linkage flower

/
Mohamed Ali prepared this video of the four-bar linkage he designed…
MechGen Flower

A four-bar linkage flower

/
Cameron Turner prepared this video of his four-bar linkage flower.…
MechGen Four-Bar HW

Four-bar linkage design using Mech Gen

/
This is the first assignment in my graduate mechanism synthesis…
OSU Mechanism

Shape-morphing linkages

/
This is an example of a shape-morphing linkage resulting from…
Spare Tire Linkage

Spare Tire Deployment for a Pickup Truck

/
This four-bar linkage was designed by Kaustubh Sonawale using…
Bolt Insertion Six-bar Linkage

Bolt Insertion Six-bar Linkage

This linkage was designed to guide a powered screw driver through…
Rice Transplanter Six-bar

Rice Transplanter Six-bar

This is a revised version of the rice transplanter linkage designed…
Icon A5 Wing Deployment Spherical Linkage

Icon A5 Wing Deployment Spherical Linkage

This spherical four-bar linkage was designed by Kaustubh Sonawale…
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…
Bobbin Linkage for a Rotating Weaver

Bobbin Linkage for a Rotating Weaver

This linkage is designed to guide the bobbin thread of a rotating…
Icon A5 spherical four-bar wing linkage

Icon A5 spherical four-bar wing linkage

This shows the wing movement of the Icon A5 as guided by a spherical…
Six-bar gripper with fine adjustment

Six-bar gripper with fine adjustment

This is a robotic gripper designed by Andrea Carli and Kaustubh…
Spherical linkage concept to fold a wing

Kinetic Art

/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT2GmuWWa9U This is is an…
5-SS Steering Linkage

5-SS Steering Linkage

This steering linkage is designed to increase the track, decrease…
Adjustable spinal implant

Adjustable spinal implant

Brandon Tsuge and Tim Rasmussen developed this concept for an…
Instrument for spinal implant

Instrument for spinal implant

This instrument is a six-bar linkage designed to separate vertebral…
MechGen 3

Mechanism Generator 3.0

/
Our Mechanism Generator 3.0 software reads a SolidWorks sketch…
Rice Transplanter

Rice Transplanter

This rice transplanter selects seedlings from the hopper and…
5SS Spatial Steering Linkage

5SS Spatial Steering Linkage

Mark Plecnik designed this spatial 5SS steering linkage to increase…
MechGen 2

Mechanism Generator 2.0 (MechGen 2)

/
We have a trial version of our Mechanism Generator 2.0 software…
Folding movement for wings for the Icon A5

Folding movement for wings for the Icon A5

This spherical four-bar linkage concept by Kaustubh Sonawale…
Spherical linkage concept to fold a wing

Spherical linkage concept to fold a wing

This is a spherical four-bar linkage concept by Kaustubh Sonawale…

Linkage Design Concepts

Jessica Koa designed the flower with petals actuated by six-bar linages.

Link Yun’s flower with six-bar linkages moving the petals.

Benjamin Liu’s Terrarium uses six-bar linkages to open the glass sides.

DJ Fuller’s Jack-o’Lantern uses six-bar linkages to open the segments.

Jessica Kao developed this sofa bed that opens using a six-bar linkage.

Ling Yun used our sofa beg linkage to display a gift.

Design Innovation

Student designs of six-bar linkages

Andrew Brouwer’s six-bar linkage to guide the petals.

Kamil Samaan designed this six-bar linkage.

Bojun Lin’s six-bar linkage guiding the pedals of a flower.

Colin Sledge’s six-bar flower.

Frank Liu’s six-bar flower.

Cameron Turner’s six-bar linkage flower.

Adam Shutt designed this six-bar to guide the opening of the petals of a flower.

Mohamed Ali designed this six-bar to guide the wings of this butterfly.

Tim Rasmussen designed this six-bar linkage to guide the petals of this flower.

Hsuan-chen Wan used MechGen 3 to design a six-bar linkage to guide the petals of the flower.

Student designs of four-bar linkages


Hsuan-chen Wan’s animation of a four-bar linkage that moves the petals of a flower.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvSmz3hYk-o[/youtube]


Cameron Turner’s design of a flower that moves with a four-bar linkage.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV0hQQn0OfI[/youtube]


Mohamed Ali’s four-bar linkage for the flower.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoCPh53_f9M[/youtube]


Scott Bougie’s animation of his flower design.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_1v7PjDWjg[/youtube]


Frank Liu’s four-bar linkage design for the petal movement.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsFgoPgpmXA[/youtube]


Yang Liu’s four-bar linkage flower.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWGrp2tvf0Q[/youtube]


Kamal Samaan’s design of the four-bar linkage driven flower.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO6JTY9HpLs[/youtube]


The flower designed by Colin Sledge.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFudL7fBUBU[/youtube]


This is Andrew Brouwer’s design for the flower.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s81Lrjsli_Y[/youtube]


Adan Amarillas designed this linkage.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6ZBBVFFivQ[/youtube]


Brandon Creager animated a spiral opening for the flower.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oar2wuqLxyA[/youtube]


Adam Shutts designed this linkage to open the petals.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5phQxLbKrU[/youtube]


Bojun Lin designed this flower linkage.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bi90cgQaU8[/youtube]


Kelly Lin designed this linkage.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm3P_dn3Zys[/youtube]


Tim Rasmussen designed the linkage to open and close the flower petals.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNMiDrbZGrU[/youtube]


This is the four-bar linkage designed by Ryan Kuehne.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jWBDXI81t4[/youtube]


Siqi Shi designed this four-bar linkage flower.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qvh9onP7cI[/youtube]


Tianming Cheng designed this four-bar linkage flower.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcnwIhc5-rU[/youtube]


Brendan Smith uses the movement of the petal linkage for a different application.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqAHqWz4cNk[/youtube]