Interactive Visualization of the Coupler Surfaces of the Spatial 4C Mechanism

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology for generating and displaying the coupler surfaces of the spatial 4C mechanism. The 4C mechanism is a two-degree-of-freedom spatial four-bar linkage. The path traced by a point attached to the coupler or floating link defines a surface in space. It is shown that the coupler surface of the spatial 4C mechanism is a ruled surface with 16thdegree directrices. An interactive graphical user interface has been created and integrated with kinematic analysis routines to generate and interactively display these coupler surfaces. The result is a user-friendly and efficient means of generating and visualizing the coupler surfaces of the spatial 4C four-bar mechanism.