Constraint-Based Limb Synthesis and Mobility-Change-Aimed Mechanism Construction

Based on the newly invented reconfigurable Hooke joint which changes the joint property, this paper investigates synthesis of limbs using the new joint based on constraint analysis. The procedure of the limb synthesis is put forward to fully use the property of the new joint for generating the reconfigurable limbs. Further, the paper presents a way of synthesising the parallel mechanism with metamorphic characteristics by starting from the aim at mobility-change. This is then integrated into the forward-based limb synthesis. A general procedure is proposed and applied to construct two classes of metamorphic parallel mechanisms. Their topological configuration change is investigated by examining the constraint change stemming from the phase alteration of the reconfigurable Hooke joint.