9. Geometric Constraints Resulting From Puzzles

Wooden puzzles consisting of interlocking assembly of notched sticks are often referred to as bar-puzzles, sometime known as the Chinese Puzzles or Chinese Cross. By far the more familiar of three-dimensional puzzles in general is the multi-piece bar. But there does not appear to be any evidence that the idea of its mechanism property and any configuration analysis originated. To this purpose, this paper proposes a static and discrete reconfiguration theory of geometric puzzles for modeling the topology changement as Put Together, Take Apart, Sequential Movement and various others. The partition and assembly process analysis aims to extract the kinematic chains as links and joints. The puzzle unlocking leads to configuration constraints rearrangement problems which accompanying pieces of bars self-grouped as defined reconfiguration links and joints. The puzzle solutions are first described as reconfigurable topology mechanism and the constrained mobility is analyzed based on an ingenious and distinctive reconfiguration property.