Synthesis of the whole family of planar 1-DOF kinematic chains and creation of their atlas database

Obtaining all the independent kinematic structures of mechanisms is very helpful for the selection of the most suitable candidate at the conceptual design stage of mechanisms. This paper proposes a fully-automatic method to synthesize the whole family of planar 1-DOF (degrees of freedom) kinematic chains with different links, and the corresponding atlas databases containing all the classified topological graphs are also established. The topological graph and the contracted graph are used to represent the topological structures of kinematic chains. The contracted graphs and valid contracted graphs of 1-DOF kinematic chains with different numbers of links are synthesized first. All the topological graphs are then synthesized from the corresponding valid contracted graphs. The atlas database of 1-DOF kinematic chains with 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 links, which contains all the valid topological graphs classified by their structure characteristics, is also established and illustrated at the end of the paper, proving the effectiveness of the method.

► A general method to synthesize planar 1-DOF kinematic chains is proposed.
► The method is characterized by effectiveness, automation and designer-friendliness.
► The whole family of 1-DOF kinematic chains with 6–14 links is synthesized.
► An atlas database of 1-DOF kinematic chains with 6–14 links is established.
► The atlas database contains all the valid topological graphs classified by their structural characteristics.