1 Leo JOSKOWICZ and Elisha SACKS ROBUST KINEMATIC DESIGN OF PLANAR ASSEMBLIES

This paper describes a framework and algorithms for robust kinematic design of mechanical assemblies. The framework, developed over a period of ten years, is based on the configuration space method and supports automatic modeling, nominal and toleranced analysis, and part tolerance envelope computation of open and closed loop planar mechanisms with multiple, changing contacts. It also supports nominal and toleranced kinematic synthesis of planar pairs based on a parametric part model. The tools help designers select nominal parameter values, identify failure modes, and optimize nominal values and tolerance allocation. We illustrate the concept of robust design with a realistic design scenario and show how our tools support the kinematic design process. We briefly describe the configuration space approach and the algorithms we have developed for nominal and toleranced kinematic mechanism analysis, tolerance parts envelopes computation, and robust kinematic synthesis of higher pairs.