LinkageDesigner 1.1

The Mechanism Prototyping System

LinkageDesigner is a Mathematica application package for virtual prototyping of linkages. It is designed to analyze, synthesize, and simulate linkages with serial chain, tree, and graph structures. Using the symbolic calculation capabilities of Mathematica, it supports fully parametrized linkage definition and analysis. In LinkageDesigner, kinematic structures (such as linkages, mechanisms, etc.) are represented by kinematic graphs of the linkage, where links are vertices and joints are edges.

Key Features

• Automatic generation of non-redundant loop-closing equations for single and multiple loops
• Detection of non-feasible and lock-up mechanisms while defining the model
• Parametrized linkage definitions, letting 2D and 3D mechanisms be treated identically
• New flexible and user-extensible LinkageData data type, which stores all information associated with a mechanism
• Easy copying of LinkageData objects between mechanisms

LinkageDesigner can calculate the velocity, angular velocity, acceleration, angular acceleration, and higher order derivatives of any links in closed form. The package has extensive support for visualizing and animating linkages, which can be displayed or animated in Mathematica notebooks, or exported to LiveGraphics3D or VRML97.

The package comes with electronic documentation, in both PDF and Mathematica Help Browser formats.

About the Developer

Dr. Gábor Erdős, the developer of LinkageDesigner, is a senior research assistant in the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Science. Formerly, he was a postdoctoral assistant in the CAD laboratory of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. He received his PhD from the Technical University of Budapest. He completed his MSc studies in the faculty of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at State University of New York at Buffalo. He has worked in the field of computer-aided mechanism design and CAD-CAM-CNC integration for many years.

Product Support

LinkageDesigner is developed and supported by Dr. Gábor Erdős, Bit-Plié 2003 Bt.

Bit-Plié 2003 Bt
Szigetvári u. 52/a
H-1222 Budapest
HUNGARY
+36-0(1)-424-7611
email: info@linkagedesigner.com
web: http://www.linkagedesinger.com

LinkageDesigner 1.1 requires Mathematica 6 and is available for all Mathematica platforms.  

LinkageDesigner is © 2005-2007 Dr. Gábor Erdős.