Generation of Coupler Curves for Planar Kinematic Chains Using Link Joint Equations

Analysis of four bar kinematic chain for generation of its coupler curves and functions generation is well researched. However, limited amount of work is reported for higher link mechanisms. In the present work, an attempt has been made to propose a simple method to generate coupler curves of kinematic chains. Present method is based on identifying the joint locations of all fixed and moving joint. Simultaneous equations of quadratic nature are proposed for each and every moving links to provide dimensional constraints with respect to the fixed link. MATLAB—mathematical software—has been used to solve the non-linear simultaneous equations. Analysis of the cases referred are carried out and coupler curves are generated for four bar mechanism, all five inversions of six link mechanism and eight link mechanism.