Kinematics of a screw linkage

Abstract

AbstractThis paper proposes a kinematics methodology in twist coordinates for screw linkages. Based on the definition of a twist, both the angular velocity of a link and the linear velocity of a point on it may be explicitly represented in twist coordinates. Through integration on the twist solution numerically or analytically, we may obtain the displacements. By differential or numerical differential interpolation of the twist, we can find the accelerations of the link. The most outstanding advantage of this kinematic algorithm is that only the numerical differential interpolation of the first order is required to calculate the acceleration while only the first order integration of the twist is enough to compute the displacement. This merit makes it particularly fit for developing programmes to accomplish the kinematics analysis of a spatial linkage.