Kinematics

The study of the kinematics and dynamics of machines lies at the very core of a mechanical engineering background. Although tremendous advances have been made in the computational and design tools now available, little has changed in the way the subject is presented, both in the classroom and in professional references. Fundamentals of Kinematics and Dynamics of Machines and Mechanisms brings the subject alive and current. The author's careful integration of Mathematica software gives readers a chance to perform symbolic analysis, to plot the results, and most importantly, to animate the motion. They get to "play" with the mechanism parameters and immediately see their effects. The downloadable resources contain Mathematica-based programs for suggested design projects. As useful as Mathematica is, however, a tool should not interfere with but enhance one's grasp of the concepts and the development of analytical skills. The author ensures this with his emphasis on the understanding and application of basic theoretical principles, unified approach to the analysis of planar mechanisms, and introduction to vibrations and rotordynamics.

This book presents the most recent research advances in the theory, design, control and application of robotic systems, which are intended for a variety of purposes such as manipulation, manufacturing, automation, surgery, locomotion and biomechanics.

The book deals with kinematics of mechanisms. It focuses on a solid theoretical foundation and on mathematical methods applicable to the solution of problems of very diverse nature. Applications are demonstrated in a large number of fully worked-out problems. In kinematics a wide variety of mathematical tools is applicable. In this book, wherever possible vector equations are formulated instead of lengthy scalar coordinate equations. The principle of transference is applied to problems of very diverse nature. 15 chapters of the book are devoted to spatial kinematics and three chapters to planar kinematics. In Chapt. 19 nonlinear dynamics equations of motion are formulated for general spatial mechanisms. Nearly one half of the book is dealing with position theory and the other half with motion. The book is intended for use as reference book for researchers and as textbook in advanced courses on kinematics of mechanisms.

Parallel Kinematics- Type, Kinematics, and Optimal Design presents the results of 15 year's research on parallel mechanisms and parallel kinematics machines. This book covers the systematic classification of parallel mechanisms (PMs) as well as providing a large number of mechanical architectures of PMs available for use in practical applications. It focuses on the kinematic design of parallel robots. One successful application of parallel mechanisms in the field of machine tools, which is also called parallel kinematics machines, has been the emerging trend in advanced machine tools. The book describes not only the main aspects and important topics in parallel kinematics, but also references novel concepts and approaches, i.e. type synthesis based on evolution, performance evaluation and optimization based on screw theory, singularity model taking into account motion and force transmissibility, and others. This book is intended for researchers, scientists, engineers and postgraduates or above with interests in robotics and advanced machine tools technology such as parallel kinematics machines (PKMs). Xinjun Liu and Jinsong Wang, professors, work at The Institute of Manufacturing Engineering, Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanology, Tsinghua University.

Effectively Apply the Systems Needed for Kinematic, Static, and Dynamic Analyses and DesignA survey of machine dynamics using MATLAB and SimMechanics, Kinematics and Dynamics of Mechanical Systems: Implementation in MATLAB and SimMechanics combines the fundamentals of mechanism kinematics, synthesis, statics and dynamics with real-world application

A rational study of kinematics is a treatment of the subject based on invariants, i.e., quantities that remain essentially unchanged under a change of observer. An observer is understood to be a reference frame supplied with a clock (Truesdell 1966). This study will therefore include an introduction to invariants. The language of these is tensor analysis and multilinear algebra, both of which share many isomorphic relations, These subjects are treated in full detail in Ericksen (1960) and Bowen and Wang (1976), and hence will not be included here. Only a short account of notation and definitions will be presented. Moreover, definitions and basic concepts pertaining to the kinematics of rigid bodies will be also included. Although the kinematics of rigid bodies can be regarded as a particular case of the kinematics of continua, the former deserves attention on its own merits for several reasons. One of these is that it describes locally the motions undergone by continua. Another reason is that a whole area of mechanics, known as classical dynamics, is the study of the motions undergone by particles, rigid bodies, and systems thereof.

The topics addressed in this book cover the whole range of kinematic analysis, synthesis and design and consider robotic systems possessing serial, parallel and cable driven mechanisms. The robotic systems range from being less than fully mobile to kinematically redundant to over constrained. The fifty-six contributions report the latest results in robot kinematics with emphasis on emerging areas such as design and control of humanoids or humanoid subsystems. The book is of interest to researchers wanting to bring their knowledge up to date regarding modern topics in one of the basic disciplines in robotics, which relates to the essential property of robots, the motion of mechanisms.