A novel approach for the rigid body guidance synthesis of planar RRPR linkages

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that the maximum number of poses that can be exactly reached by a planar RRPR linkage is four, while the design for five poses requires the relaxation of displacement constraints at one prescribed pose. To this end, a novel and explicit condition for the synthesis of RP dyads with five prescribed poses is correspondingly introduced. It leads to a new and efficient approach to synthesize planar RRPR linkages, which is equipped with a branching identification procedure. Two successful case studies are provided to validate the applicability of the proposed synthesis approach.