Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms

21st Century Kinematics: NSF Workshop

The Bored Robot: Controlling Two Drive Motors for a Walking Machine

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

Six-Legged Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Highlights

Prototype Four-Legged Mechanical Walker

Four-Legged Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Highlights

The Design of Mechanical Walkers: Spring 2020 Student Projects

Fall 2019 Mechanical Walker Prototypes

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

Four Legged Mechanical Walker: Teams 1, 3 and 6

Halloween Display 2019

More Halloween Linkage Designs

Halloween Design Project

Mechanical Walker Project Animations: Spring 2019

Leg Mechanism for a Mechanical Walker
Machine Design

DMG-LIB.org mechanism library

MechGen Suspension


Cam actuation in a V8 engine

Diesel engine animation


Spherical Four-bar Linkage Design: Mech Gen 4

Design Exchange and HCD Connect


Mechanism Generator 2.0 (MechGen 2)
Lecture Notes

Introduction to Linkage Synthesis

Curvature Theory for Planar Point Trajectories

Four-bar Linkage Synthesis, Two and Three Task Positions

Four-bar Linkage Analysis Notes

Type Synthesis, Assur Groups, and Rigidity

MK.1 Mechanical Computer

Four-bar function generator: Open a door




A. Svoboda: Computing Mechanisms and Linkages

A. B. Kempe: How To Draw A Straight Line

Workshop Presentations: 21st Century Kinematics


Have a linkage design challenge? We can help.
Contact us on this feedback form. We look forward to providing our MechGen synthesis software to simplify your linkage design process in SolidWorks.
Linkage Synthesis Theory
The mathematical synthesis of linkage movement provides a powerful tool for invention. However, the specified task may not have useful solutions, and the search for successful tasks can be discouraging.
To address this, we automate the search and evaluation process within tolerance zones specified by the designer. These Mathematica notebooks implement our approach to finding defect-free four-bar linkage designs.
RR Constraint Synthesis for Function Generation
Synthesis of an RR Constraint
An important technique in kinematic synthesis is the design of an RR constraint that controls the movement of two joints of an existing serial chain. For a given RR serial chain, like OA shown above, we can specify its movement through five required task positions. This provides the information needed to design an RR constraint, GW above, that ensures the system moves through the required task positions.
This technique is called function generation in the kinematics synthesis literature, because the synthesized RR constraint maintains a specified relationship between the joint angles alpha and beta at joints O and A.
Select this link to download our Mathematica notebook: RR-Constraint Synthesis. It uses a given RR chain and the associated task to determine tolerance zones, where it searches for defect-free designs. As above, this file may download as text file so remove the .txt extension, then it should be readable by Mathematica. If you have any questions, please contact me.
Five-Position Synthesis of a Four-bar Linkage
Here we show a four-bar linkage designed to guide the coupler through five required task positions.
Please download and try our updated Mathematica notebook: Five-Position Synthesis. It searches in the vicinity of the required task for sets of positions that yield defect-free four-bar linkages. It may download as textfile so remove the .txt extension, then it should be readable by Mathematica.
The video below shows the operation of this notebook.
If you have any problems or advice, please contact me.