3.10 Independent Contour Equations 95
The MATLAB statements for the angular velocity and acceleration of links 2 and 3
are:
xB = sym(’xB(t)’); % xB(t) symbolic
yB = sym(’yB(t)’); % yB(t) symbolic
% list for the symbolical variables of B
% xB’’(t), yB’’(t), xB’(t), yB’(t), xB(t), yB(t)
sB={diff(’xB(t)’,t,2),diff(’yB(t)’,t,2),...
diff(’xB(t)’,t),diff(’yB(t)’,t),’xB(t)’,’yB(t)’};
% list for the numerical values of the sB list
nB={aBn(1),aBn(2),vBn(1),vBn(2),xBn,yBn};
phi3 = atan((yB-yC)/(xB-xC));
phi3n = subs(phi3,sB,nB);
fprintf(’phi2=phi3=%g(degrees)\n’,...
double(phi3n
*
180/pi))
dphi3 = diff(phi3,t);
dphi3n = subs(dphi3,sB,nB) ;
fprintf(’omega2=omega3=%g (rad/s)\n’,double(dphi3n))
ddphi3 = diff(dphi3,t);
ddphi3n = subs(ddphi3,sB,nB);
fprintf(’alpha2=alpha3=%g(rad/sˆ2)\n’,double(ddphi3n))
The MATLAB program for velocity and acceleration analysis, for the R-RTR mech-
anism using derivative method and the results are given in Appendix B.7.
For the R-RRR mechanism, shown in Fig. 2.4 and presented in Sect. 3.6,
the MATLAB program for velocity and acceleration analysis using the derivative
method is given in Appendix B.8.
3.10 Independent Contour Equations
This section provides an algebraic method to compute the velocities and acceler-
ations of any closed kinematic chain. The classical method for obtaining the ve-
locities and accelerations involves the computation of the derivative with respect to
time of the position vectors. The method of contour equations avoids this task and
uses only algebraic equations [Atanasiu (1973), Voinea et al. (1983)]. Using this ap-
proach, a numerical implementation is much more efficient. The method described
here can be applied to planar and spatial mechanisms.
Figure 3.10 shows a monocontour closed kinematic chain with n rigid links. The
joint A
i
, i = 0,1, 2,...,n is the connection between the links (i) and (i −1). The last
link n is connected with the first link 0 of the chain. For the closed kinematic chain,
a path is chosen from link 0 to link n. At the joint A
i
there are two instantaneously
coincident points: the point A
i,i
belonging to link (i), A
i,i
∈ (i), and the point A
i,i−1
belonging to link (i −1), A
i,i−1
∈ (i −1).