On the Geometry of Geared 5-Bar Motion

Abstract

A new approach is adopted to study the geometry of the coupler curves associated to geared 5-bar motion. The key idea is to think of a configuration of the mechanism as a point in a higher - dimensional configuration space; the family of all configurations is then represented by an algebraic curve in that space. Coupler curves appear naturally as projections of this curve, so their properties can be deduced by projection, independent of any explicit knowledge of their equations.