Kinematic Synthesis of an Eight-Bar Linkage to Visit Eleven Poses Exactly

C. Chen McGill Univerisity Montreal, Canada

AbstractA four-bar linkage can visit exactly up to ve poses. Approximate approaches can be applied on the the four-bar linkage for more than ve given poses. We introduce here a method to synthesize an eight-bar linkage which can visit up to 11 poses exactly. An example is given to illustrate and validate the proposed approach.
Keywords:optimal design, accuracy, parallel robot

J. Angeles McGill University Montreal, Canada

I. Introduction The Burmester problem aims at nding the geometric parameters of a four-bar linkage for a prescribed set of nitely separated poses [1]. It is well known that a RR dyad can be synthesized exactly for up to ve prescribed poses. Extensive research has been reported on the solution of the Burmester problem with different approaches. Hunt [2], Bottema and Roth [3], Sandor and Erdman [4] and McCarthy [5] solved the ve-pose problem by intersecting two centerpoint curves of two four-pose problems for two subsets of four poses out of the given ve-pose set, to obtain the centerpoints. Beyer [6] and Lichtenheldt [7] reported methods based on projective geometry, while Modler [8], [9], [10], [11] reported an extensive study including various special cases. Sandor and Erdman, in turn, applied complex numbers [4], while Ravani and Roth [12] and Hayes and Zsombor-Murray [13] solved the problem via the kinematic mapping. Schr cker et al. applied the kinematic mapping o further to detect the branch defect in the synthesis of fourbar linkages [14]. For more than ve given poses, a four-bar linkage can only be synthesized to visit the poses approximately, which reduces the reliability and precision of a task performed by the mechanism. Schreiber et al. [15] developed an approach to synthesize planar Stephenson mechanisms in order to satisfy some side conditions. However, the synthesized mechanism still can only fulll up to ve poses exactly. In this paper, we synthesize an eight-bar linkage to visit 11 prescribed poses exactly. An example will be given to solve the 11 poses proposed by Prof. J. M. McCarthy on the occasion of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conferences in Montreal in 2002.
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Fig. 1. An eight-bar linkage

II. Eight-Bar Linkage Shown in Fig. 1 is an eight-bar linkage, which comprises two four-bar linkages, ABCD and A B C D , coupled by a common link PP Q. This eight-bar linkage has a degreeof-freedom (dof) = 1. Point Q on the coupling triangle PP Q is required to visit the origins of the frames attached to the 11 given poses, while the triangle attains the given orientations. III. Synthesis Equations The mechanism has two legs with the same topology in the proposed eight-bar linkage, each leg being, in fact, a four-bar linkage whose coupler link is coupled to a common link PP Q, as shown in Fig. 2. The mechanism thus has a total of ve revolute (R) joints in each leg, the leg being determined once these joints are located. If two different solutions are obtained for one leg, then these two solutions constitute the two legs sought. Hence, an eight-bar linkage is synthesized by coupling these two legs. Since we need two coordinates on a plane to locate one R joint, we have 10 unknowns. We select the 0th pose and attach a frame F0 and set a vector p0 pointing from the origin Q0 of F0 to the reference point P0 in this frame. Hence, pi = Q1i p0 + ri , i = 1, 2, ..., 10 (1)

chao.chen@elf.mcgill.ca angeles@cim.mcgill.ca

Q2i =

cos i sin i

sin i , cos i

i = 1, ..., 10

In M0 , a, b0 , c0 and d are the position vectors of points A, B0 , C0 and D, respectively, as shown in Fig. 2. In M0 , points B and C in all poses can be readily located by bi = Q2i b0 + pi , ci = Q2i c0 + pi , i = 1, ..., 10 i = 1, ..., 10 (3a) (3b)

Finally, the synthesis equations are obtained in the form bi a ci d

Fig. 2. One leg of the eight-bar linkage
2 2

= b0 a 2 , = c0 d 2 ,

i = 1, ..., 10 (4a) i = 1, ..., 10 (4b)

Notice that we have a total of 20 equations in 20 unknowns, namely, the (xi , yi ) coordinates of ve points and the 10 angles of rotation i . Since angles i for i = 1, ..., 10 are only auxiliary variables, we will eliminate them to derive 10 synthesis equations in 10 unknowns. Substituting eqs. (1) and (2) into eq. (3a) yields bi = Q2i b0 + (Q1i 1)p0 + ri (5)

Upon substituting eq. (5) into the left-hand side of eq. (4a) and expanding, we obtain bi a 2 = b0 2 + 2(1 cos i ) p0 + ri a 2 + 2(rT aT )(Q1i 1)p0 i +2bT QT [(Q1i 1)p0 + ri a] 0 2i
Fig. 3. The angle of rotation of the coupler link
2

(6)

Furthermore, substituting eq. (6) into eq. (4a) gives

T u1i + v1i Q2i b0 = 0

(7)

where ri is the point displacement from the 0th pose to the ith pose, Q1i denoting the rotation matrix from the 0th pose to the ith pose, namely, Q1i = cos i sin i sin i cos i

with u1i = 2(1 cos i ) p0 2 + ri 2 2rT a i +2(rT aT )(Q1i 1)p0 i +2bT a (8a) 0 v1i = 2[(Q1i 1)p0 + ri a] (8b) Similarly, eq. (4b) can be rewritten as
T u2i + v2i Q2i c0 = 0

In order to simplify the ensuing derivations, we introduce a new frame M0 with the origin located at the reference point P0 and with the same orientation as F0 . The position vector of point Pi in F0 can be alternatively be expressed as pi = p0 + pi , i = 1, ..., 10 (2)

(9)

with u2i = 2(1 cos i ) p0 2 + ri 2 2rT d i +2(rT dT )(Q1i 1)p0 i +2cT d (10a) 0 v2i = 2[(Q1i 1)p0 + ri d] (10b)

Moreover, we introduce the angle of rotation i of the coupler link BCP in the ith pose with respect to the 0th pose, as shown in Fig. 3. Hence, the rotation of the coupler link is represented by

Q2i = cos i 1 + sin i E,

with

E=

(11)

Casting eqs. (12) in vector form yields Mi ei = ui with Mi = ei =

T v1i b0 T v2i c0 T v1i Eb0 T v2i Ec0

(13)

(14a) (14b)
Fig. 4. The 11 poses proposed by McCarthy TABLE I. The 11 poses prescribed by McCarthy

cos i , sin i

ui =

u1i u2i

Solving eq. (13) for ei yields, ei = M1 ui i T T 1 v2i Ec0 v1i Eb0 u1i = T T v1i b0 u2i det(Mi ) v2i c0 T T 1 v2i Ec0 u1i v1i Eb0 u2i = (15) T T det(Mi ) v2i c0 u1i + v1i b0 u2i where
T T T T det(Mi ) = v2i Ec0 v1i b0 v1i Eb0 v2i c0 (16)

r r r

Obviously, vector ei of eq. (15) is of unit magnitude, as per eq. (14b), which then yields
T T (v2i Ec0 u1i v1i Eb0 u2i )2 T T +(v2i c0 u1i + v1i b0 u2i )2 [det (Mi )]2 = 0

1 12.64 0.45 0.24 5 88.29 2.95 0.97 9 12.64 1.06 2.63

2 34.97 1.32 0.42 6 79.97 2.60 1.26 10 0.00 1.00 3.00

3 59.80 2.29 0.17 7 59.80 1.93 1.57

4 79.97 2.88 0.43 8 34.97 1.36 2.06

(17)

for i = 1, ..., 10. Equations (17) are the 10 nal synthesis equations in 10 unknowns, the coordinates of ve joint centers. Notice that the coordinates of point P are in F0 , while those of points A, B, C and D are in M0 . IV. Example McCarthy proposed the 11 poses shown in Fig. 4; the poses yield the 10 displacements of Table I, where i and ri indicate the angular and point displacement, respectively, from the 0th pose to the ith pose, in F0 . We numerically solve the nonlinear equations (17) by means of Matlabs function fsolve, which relies on Newton-Raphsons method. We also notice that u1i and u2i in eqs. (8a) and (10a) are quadratic in variables v1i and

v2i in eqs. (8b), while eqs. (10b) are linear in the same variables. Hence, each synthesis equation in eqs. (17) is octic, the Bezout number of that system of equations thus being 810 1.073741824 109 , which is an upper bound for the number of solutions expected. However, only a few of these are valid. A common kind of real but invalid solutions, we found, are those with points A and D as well as points B and C coincident. In order to synthesize a linkage with a reasonable size, we select the initial guess of each coordinate to be one of {3.0, 0.0, 3.0} based on the poses given in Table I. Hence, we have 310 = 59049 combinations of initial guesses, for 10 variables. From these initial guesses, we obtained 19 valid solutions; each solution yields one leg of 2 the eight-bar linkage. Hence, we have C19 = 171 combinations to construct the linkage. One pair of solutions was selected as our nal result based on the geometric shape and size of the linkage. This pair of solutions, as shown in Table II, generates the eight-bar linkage, which is shown in Fig. 5. Figures 6 and 7 illustrate those instantaneous con-

01

T T u1i + v1i b0 cos i + v1i Eb0 sin i = 0 (12a) T T u2i + v2i c0 cos i + v2i Ec0 sin i = 0 (12b)

Equations (7) and (9) can thus be rewritten as

2

3 0 1

0 1

1 0

Only the rotation matrices Q2i contain i in eqs. (7) and (9); these matrices can always be cast in the form

under Strategic Project No. STP0192750, and partly by FQRNT (Fonds de Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies). References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Fig. 5. The nal synthesis of an eight-bar linkage at the 0th pose [14] [15] L. Burmester. Lehrbuch der Kinematik. Arthur Felix Verlag, Leipzig, Germany, 1888. K. H. Hunt. Kinematic Geometry of Mechanisms. Oxford University Press, New York, 1978. O. Bottema and B. Roth. Theoretical Kinematics. North-Holland Pub. Co., New York, 1979. G. N. Sandor and A. Erdman. Advanced Mechanism Design: Analysis and Synthesis, volume 2. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1984. J. M. McCarthy. Geometric Design of Linkages. Springer-Verlag, New York, 2000. R. Beyer. Kinematische Getriebesynthese. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1953. K. Luck and K. H. Modler. Getriebetechnik Analyse, Synthese, Optimierung. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1995. K. H. Modler. Beitrag zur theorie der burmesterschen mittelpunktkurve, teil 1. Maschinenbautechnik, 21(3):98102, 1972. K. H. Modler. Erzeugung von sonderf llen der mittelpunktkurve, teil a 2. Maschinenbautechnik, 21(4):151154, 1972. K. H. Modler. Sonderf llen der mittelpunktkurve, teil 3. Maschinena bautechnik, 21(5):199202, 1972. K. H. Modler. Reihenfolge der homologen punkte bei den sonderf llen der mittelpunktkurve, teil 5. a Maschinenbautechnik, 21(7):293296, 1972. B. Ravani and B. Roth. Motion synthesis using kinematic mappings. ASME Journal of Mechanism, Transmissions, and Automation in Design, 105:460467, 1983. M. Hayes and P. Zsombor-Murray. Solving the burmester problem using kinematic mapping. In Proc. ASME DETC2002, 2002. H. P. Schr cker, M. Husty, and J. M. McCarthy. Kinematic mapping o based evaluation of assembly modes for planar four-bar synthesis. In Proc. ASME DETC2005, 2005. H. Schreiber, K. Meer, and B. J. Schmitt. Dimensional synthesis of planar Stephenson mechanisms for motion generation using circlepoint search and homotopy methods. Mechanism and Machine Theory, 37:717737, 2002.

gurations of the synthesized linkage visiting all the prescribed poses exactly.
TABLE II. Two valid solutions for the eight-bar synthesis

xA 0.099308162 -0.075244983 xC -0.28663562 1.6570253 xE 1.4815976 1.6632412 V. Conclusions

yA -1.5952682 -2.0472173 yC 1.4548425 0.33335048 yE -1.9452587 0.22863045

xB -0.54753361 1.1624257 xD 1.0379583 1.7485992

yB -1.2640557 -1.0221949 yD -1.2478651 -1.4251841

This paper proposed a method to synthesize an eight-bar linkage to visit 11 given poses exactly. We derived the 10 synthesis equation in 10 unknowns, which yields billions of solutions. In the example, we discuss means to limit the number of solutions, and validate our method by showing the synthesized eight-bar linkage visiting all the 11 poses proposed by McCarthy. Acknowledgements The research work proposed here was supported partly by NSERC (Science and Engineering Research Canada)

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)
Fig. 6. The illustration of the eight-bar linkage meeting with the poses from 1 to 6

(f)

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 7. The illustration of the eight-bar linkage meeting with the poses from 7 to 10