A new computational methodology for the synthesis of simple jointed kinematic chains

This paper deals upon structural synthesis of simple jointed kinematic chains (SJKC) having N′ links and possessing F′ degrees of freedom (DOF). The SJKCs generated are closed and connected; have multiple loops; will exhibit, for multi-DOF cases, total freedom, partial freedom and fractionated freedom (due to an existence of at least one separation link or due to the presence of at least one separation pairs). The basic idea underlying the synthesis methodology proposed in this work is enumeration of chains with L loops by systematic expansion of chains with (L 1) The expansion is brought about by connecting predefined binary link string which adds NP links and JP simple joints to the chains having fewer numbers of links than the chains being synthesized. Such chains are called parent kinematic chains (PKC).