Two Degree of Freedom Planar Kinematic-Chains

Background: Properties of a Point that moves along an XY-Path

If a Point has a general motion on the Mechanism-Plane, we can think of its:

A.Path on the Plane, and also its,
B.Motion magnitude [velocity and acceleration] along the Path

In MechDesigner, to define the motion for a Point on the Mechanism-Plane, you can use:

Piggyback Sliders : use a Slider to move in an axial direction; connect a Slider to the first Slider, to which it moves at right-angles.

Motion-Path FB : use a sketch to define the path for the Point, and use a motion to define the motion along the Path.

Some designs are easier to design with Piggyback Sliders and others with a Motion-Path FB.

This tutorial uses Piggyback Sliders.

See 'Tutorial 16 Motion-Path FB and Blend-Curves' for the other technique.

An example of a Piggyback slider application:

A tool (say a vacuum cup) must take a carton from a stationary magazine and insert it into a pocket on a moving conveyor.

To place the carton, you must move the tool along with the moving conveyor (say, the X-direction) and also move it down into the pocket (say, the Y-direction) at the same time. To make sure the carton does not touch the sides of the pocket, we must synchronize the motion of the tool in both the X and Y directions.

Icon-AddMechanism Two Degree-of-Freedom Kinematic-Chains

Examples: Two Degree-of-Freedom Robots: XY-Path to give the letters 'MD'

2D Point Motion

Machines that move a point in the X- and Y-axis directions, include:

•Pen Plotters
•Water-Jet Cutters
•Laser Markers or Cutters
•Engravers

Each machine is a two degree-of-freedom (2 DOF) system.

Many kinematic-chains have two degrees-of-freedoms.

tog_minus        Gantry Robot

Gantry Style Robot

Imagine a 'Pen Plotter'. Look at the video to the left.

This 'Plotter' moves a Pen with a slide along the X-axis. Another slide carries the X-axis slide, but along the Y-axis. The combined movement of the slides plots the drawing.

tog_minus        SCARA Robot

Scara Style Robot

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5eR0eHknZk

This SCARA robot, as another 'Plotter', is also a two degree-of-freedom system.

The two inputs rotate as an alternative to the two Sliders.

The motions we give to the two motors are not the same as those we give to sliders in the Gantry Robot.

tog_minus        Parallel '5-bar' Robot

Five-Bar Parallel Robot

Here is a different 'Plotter'. An example is shown here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2UkmcPLEOs

In this model, the motors are attached to the frame. It is potentially a much faster (more responsive, more accurate) system, because the one motor does not carry the mass of the other motor.

2D Planar Motion

Planar Guidance

In this model,

•we have fixed three 'motors', shown as black cylinders, to 'Ground'.
•we have connected a Part (a Dark Green colour) to each motor.
•we keep the tool platform at the same angle relative to the frame while the other two axes write the letters 'MD'.

Tutorial and Reference Help Files for MechDesigner and MotionDesigner 13.2 + © Machine, Mechanism, Motion and Cam Design Software by PSMotion Ltd