Publication

Abstract : Kinematic analysis of mechanisms is a precursor to their dynamic analysis and hence is a very important component in the courses related to Machine Design and Theory of Machines. There are various methods like analytical, numerical, and graphical for kinematic analysis of mechanisms. While teaching to undergraduate students graphical methods are emphasized in the curriculum as the students find them relatively easy to understand. Graphical method includes drawing of position of links followed by the velocity and acceleration diagrams in vector-loop form yielding velocity and acceleration polygons. Drawing these polygons is time consuming and becomes tedious for different orientations of links. A computer based approach can certainly be a useful tool in this matter. There are various software packages available which seem to be helpful in forward kinematic analysis. However, in the best knowledge of the authors, none of them draw velocity and acceleration polygons. In this paper, a module to draw Velocity and Acceleration Diagrams or VAD module is presented. It was developed as a part of MechAnalyzer software, a 3D model based mechanism learning software. The VAD module is helpful in forward kinematic analysis of various planar mechanisms preloaded in it, and draws position, velocity, and acceleration polygons. It has an interesting feature of animating the drawing of polygons in the way they are drawn by a teacher on the board of a classroom.