Applications of kinematic/kinetic performance tools in synthesis of multi-DOF mechanisms

Analytical and graphical performance synthesis tools for multi-DOF mechanisms are developed in the companion of this two-part paper [1]. Various performance indices derived from the Jacobian matrix for analyzing performance characteristics of multi-DOF mechanisms were proposed. These performance indices are the local kinematic coupling index (inner product of the Jacobian column vectors), the local directional mobility index (ratio of the Jacobian's eigenvalues), and the local efficiency index (product of the Jacobian's eigenvalues). In this paper, effort is placed on the applicability of the proposed analytical and graphical synthesis tools used to aid the design of multi-DOF mechanisms. Two examples representing open and closed chain mechanisms will be used to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method. First, a two-link planar robotic manipulator is used to apply the proposed method. Following that, a two DOF parallel drive road simulator illustrates applicability of the suggested tools. Through these examples, geometric parameters and joint range limits of the mechanism are optimized through the evaluation of performance indices, eigen-ellipse and intersection angle between trajectory contours.