Rendering Abstract Notation of Kinematic Chains to Modified Franke’s Notation Form

Abstract

To bring about innovation in the development of any product, it is required that the designer explores multitude design concepts right at the conceptual design phase of the product development cycle. At this phase, results of structural synthesis and analysis of mechanisms have been shown to serve as an invaluable tool in the attempt to infuse novelty in the design being conceptualized. There are several studies available in literature dealing with structural enumeration of kinematic chains. Invariably, all these studies culminate in reporting the results in an abstract form such as link adjacency matrix or its simpler variants like joints’ lists, etc. Certainly, it will be more useful to designers if the chain were reported in the pictorial form since it will be more intuitive for designers to fruitfully relate what is in his mind as an unformulated idea to what is directly visible as a sketch. This paper presents the results of a computer based method that converts link adjacency matrix into modified Franke’s notation format. The way to draw full-fledged chain from its modified Franke’s notation form is explained. Chains containing 8 or more links and possessing 1 to 5 freedoms have been sketched and made available in the form of a PDF file.