4MDS: A geometric constraint based motion design software for synthesis and simulation of planar four-bar linkages

This paper presents our recent work on designing and developing a geometric constraint based motion design software system for planar four-bar linkages. Given a motion task, the software computes possible four-bar linkage topologies as well as its dimensions. This capability to analyze the given task and find the best type of the linkage and the dimensions simultaneously sets it apart from any other linkage design software. The Four-Bar Motion Design System (4MDS) makes the synthesis and simulation capabilities available to mechanism designers in an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) environment. Instead of taking a black box approach to mechanism design, wherein the user simply enters the motion requirements and the software outputs parameters of mechanisms, this software facilitates a dialog with the designer by providing various paths to simulation and synthesis in a design session. The designer has complete control over the specification of motion task, interactive tweaking of the motion, choice of linkage topology computed, dimensional changes, and their apparent effect on motion, all done in real time. This interactivity enhances designers kinematic experience. The underlying theoretical foundation of this paper is based on our earlier work on a task-driven approach to unified type and dimensional synthesis of planar four-bar linkage mechanisms. Instead of treating a planar four-bar mechanism as a set of connected rigid links and joints, we treat them as line or circle constraint generators. With that view, the synthesis problem is reduced to extracting geometric constraints hidden in a given motion task and the simulation is reduced to assembling constraints realizable by mechanical dyads. The algorithm employed is simple and efficient and permits real-time computation, and thus precludes using a limiting database-oriented approach. This tool should make innovation of mechanical motion generating devices accessible to novice and experienced designers alike.