Kinematics Of Spatial Mechanisms

Abstract

Large scale endeavor of research on spatial mechanisms started about half a century ago. Although significant research work has been done, the underlying framework of the theory of spatial mechanisms still appears weak. In this thesis, a theoretical foundation for the kinematic analysis and design of spatial mechanisms and robots has been developed.;In the last twenty years, the matrix method and the spherical trigonometry method have emerged as the most efficient ones among approximately ten other different methods for the kinematic analysis of spatial mechanisms. In this thesis a new method, the vector algebraic method, has been introduced. In comparison with the two methods, the proposed method has shown advantages on its efficiency, uniformity and simplicity.;The goal of this thesis is to enhance the education, research and application of spatial mechanisms.