A numerical procedure to solve non-linear kinematic problems in spatial mechanisms

This paper presents a numerical method to solve the forward position problem in spatial mechanisms. The method may be incorporated in a software for the kinematic analysis of mechanisms, where the procedure is systematic and can be easily implemented, achieving a high degree of automation in simulation. The procedure presents high computational efficiency, enabling its incorporation in the control loop to solve the forward position problem in the case of a velocity control scheme. Also, in this paper preliminary results on the convergence of the proposed procedure are shown, and efficiency results of the method applied to representative spatial mechanisms are presented. Copyright q 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd