Numerical analysis of displacements in multi-loop mechanisms (Q5942666)

Earlier, the first author and \textit{R. P. Paul} [ASME Journal of Mechanical Design 113, 263-271 (1991)] developed a dual version of Newton-Raphson iteration scheme adapted for displacement analysis of spatial mechanisms by \textit{J. J. Uicker jun.}, \textit{J. Denavit} and \textit{R. S. Hartenberg} [J. Appl. Mech. 31, 309-314 (1964; Zbl 0143.22803)]. In this procedure the calculations were based on \(3\times 3\) dual-number coordinate-transformation matrices. The Fischer-Paul scheme has been used previously only for single-loop spatial mechanisms. In present study, the scheme is extended to multi-loop spatial mechanisms. The methodology can be readily computerized using modern object-oriented programming languages such as \(C^{++}\).