An efficient, error-bounded approximation algorithm for simulating quasi-statics of complex linkages

Design and analysis of articulated mechanical structures, commonly referred to as linkages, is an integral part of any CAD/CAM system. The most common approaches formulate the problem as purely geometric in nature, though dynamics or quasi-statics of linkages should also be considered. Existing optimal algorithms that compute forward dynamics or quasi-statics of linkages have a linear runtime dependence on the number of joints in the linkage. When forces are applied to a linkage, these techniques need to compute the accelerations of all the joints and can become impractical for rapid prototyping of highly complex linkages with a large number of joints.We introduce a novel algorithm that enables adaptive refinement of the forward quasi-statics simulation of complex linkages. This algorithm can cull away joints whose contribution to the overall linkage motion is below a given user-defined threshold, thus limiting the computation of the joint accelerations and forces to those that contribute most to the overall motion. It also allows a natural trade-off between the precision of the resulting simulation and the time required to compute it. We have implemented our algorithm and tested its performance on complex benchmarks consisting of up to 50,000 joints. We demonstrate that in some cases our algorithm is able to achieve up to two orders of magnitude of performance improvement, while providing a high precision, error-bounded approximation of the quasi-statics of the simulated linkage.