A new geometric method for singularity analysis of spherical mechanisms

Abstract

SUMMARYFinding singular configurations (singularities) has an important role during the design, trajectory planning, and control stages of mechanisms because in these configurations, the instantaneous kinematics is locally undetermined. In this paper, a systematic method is presented to obtain singular configurations of spherical mechanisms with input and output links. The method extends the use of instantaneous poles to singularity analysis of spherical mechanisms and offers geometric conditions for any type of singularities occurring in these mechanisms.