Defining Machine Kinematics

The procedures in this section describe how to define machine kinematics on an assembled product.  This procedures populates the Mechanisms node on a specification tree that has been created using the Create a New Machine command, as described in Creating a V5 Machine. 
  Once the section is complete, you can validate the inverse kinematics of the machine. The solver will have been automatically assigned as long as the following types of V5 joints are defined to complete the machine kinematics:
 
  • Prismatic
  • Revolute
  • Rigid
  The rules below, if respected when building the machine, result in the automatic inverse kinematics solver assignment being successful.
 
  • Machines can be built as a single chain or as a maximum of two chains (bifurcated chain have separate Spindle and Table chain)
  • The direction of the linear joint can be modeled along any direction and need not necessarily be along the three principal directions
  • A minimum of one linear joint is necessary to complete the machine kinematics definition
  • The axis of rotation of the rotary joint can be along any direction in space.
  • There cannot be more than two rotary joints on the machine
  • The rotary joints can be located anywhere in a chain
  • The mount points (workpiece and tool) must be defined for the automatic inverse kinematics solution to work and to work correctly.
  • In a bifurcated chain, the mount points must be located on the last joint part of the chain
  • In a single chain, the workpiece mount part will be the fixed part while the tool mount part will be the last joint part of the chain
  • A machine with:
    • two linear joints
    • one rotary joint with the axis of rotation parallel to one of the linear joints

    always provides an interpolated solution in rotation for the third linear direction in which there is no DOF.

  There are three ways of creating joints in V5 mechanism for defining machine kinematics:
 
 
  • Using mechanism dressup, which is useful for creating joint definition on template components that can be replaced by real components as required.