Journal of Mechanical Design

State-of-the-Art Review

Current Trends in the Design of Mechanisms In reflecting on mechanisms developments during the past decade, one can observe a number of significant trends, which are apparent also in journal publications, such as this issue of
the JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL DESIGN.

One of the most significant has been the growth of computer-aided mechanisms design, including computer-graphics design techniques. General-purpose design codes in the kinematic and dynamic analysis of plane and threedimensional mechanisms, such as ADAMS, DRAM, DYMAC, IMP, KINSYN, LINCAGES and others, have significantly facilitated the industrial implementation of modern analytical developments in mechanisms. The advent of microprocessor technology has also had an impact, especially in the rapid development of robotics, a field in which mechanisms and mechanical interfaces constitute basic components. Mechanisms involved in robotics are receiving much attention, for example, the kinematics and dynamics of open-loop kinematic chains, the determination of robotic work space, and the transmission of forces and torques through the robotic system. These are among the most striking developments. At the same time there are continuing steady advances in the basic mechanics of machinery. These include the conceptual design of mechanisms; instantaneous kinematics; the analysis and synthesis of plane and three-dimensional mechanisms; the kinematics and dynamics of biomechanical systems (e.g., remotely-controlled hands, human locomotion, jaw motion, artificial limbs, etc.); the optimization of the kinematic and dynamic characteristics of mechanisms; the dynamic response of high-speed cam-follower systems; the dynamics of mechanisms with clearances and flexible members; the balancing of high-speed machinery; the effects of tolerances; advances in gear-tooth forms, materials, and production; finite-element analysis of mechanisms, including elastokineto-dynamics; bond-graph techniques in the analysis of

mechanisms and mechanical systems; and others too numerous to mention. And the above does not exclude the traditional development of ingenious new mechanisms, such as have been presented in a series of case studies in recent ASME Mechanisms Conferences. In addition to the journal and patent literature, a number of new English-language texts have appeared in recent years, for example [1-9], in which many of these developments have been described. Historically the complexity of mechanisms (especially their variety and nonlinear behavior) has been one of the obstacles to our understanding of their characteristics. While there is much that remains to be learned, our technical knowledge (including the capacity to evaluate this knowledge numerically), has attained a stage at which the analysis, synthesis, and optimization of mechanisms of realistic complexity has begun to be within our reach.

References
1 Bottema, O., and Roth, B., Theoretical Kinematics, North-Holland, 1979. 2 Dijksman, E.A., Motion Geometry of Mechanisms, Cambridge University Press, 1976. 3 Duffy, J., Analysis of Mechanisms and Robot Manipulators, WileyInterscience, 1980. 4 Hunt, K.H., Kinematic Geometry of Mechanisms, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1978. 5 Paul, B., Kinematics and Dynamics of Planar Machinery, Prentice-Hall, 1979. 6 Shigley, J.E., and Uicker, J.J. Jr., Theory of Machines and Mechanisms, McGraw-Hill, 1980. 7 Soni, A.H., Mechanism Synthesis and Analysis, Scripta Book Co., Washington, D.C., and McGraw-Hill, 1974. 8 Suh, C.H., and Radcliffe, C.W., Kinematics and Mechanisms Design, Wiley, 1978. 9 Tesar, D., and Matthew, G.K., The Dynamic Synthesis, Analysis and Design of Modeled Cam Systems, Lexington Books, 1976.

F E R D I N A N D FREUDENSTEIN Professor of Mechanical Engineering Columbia University New York, N.Y.

Journal of Mechanical Design

JULY 1981, Vol. 103/549

Copyright 1981 by ASME

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