Kinematic acquisition of geometric constraints for task-oriented design of planar mechanisms

A motion task can be given in various ways. It may be defined parametrically or discretely in terms of an ordered sequence of displacements or in geometric means. This paper studies a new type of motion analysis problem in planar kinematics that seeks to acquire geometric constraints associated with a planar motion task which is given either parametrically or discretely. The resulting geometric constraints can be used directly for type as well as dimensional synthesis of a physical device such as mechanical linkage that generates the constrained motion task. Examples are provided toward the end of the paper to illustrate how geometric constraints acquired can be used for task-oriented mechanism design.