Systematic Use of Instant Centers in the Dynamics Analysis of Single-DOF Planar Mechanisms

Many even complex machines employ single-dof planar mechanisms. The instantaneous kinematics of planar mechanisms can be fully understood by analyzing where the instant centers (ICs) of the relative motions among mechanism’s links are located. ICs’ positions depend only on the mechanism configuration in single-dof planar mechanisms and a number of algorithms that compute their location have been proposed in the literature. Once ICs positions are known, they can be exploited, for instance, to determine the velocity coefficients of the mechanism and the virtual work of the external forces applied to mechanism’s links. Here, these and other ICs’ properties are used to build a novel dynamic model and an algorithm that solves the dynamic problems of single-dof planar mechanisms. Then, the proposed model and algorithm are applied to a case study.