On the Configuration Space of planar closed Kinematic Chains

Abstract

A planar kinematic chain consists of $n$ links connected by joints. In this work we investigate the space of configurations, described in terms of joint angles, that guarantee that the kinematic chain is closed. We give explicit formulas expressing the joint angles that guarantee closedness by a new set of parameters, the diagonal lengths (the distances of the joints from the origin) of the closed kinematic chain. Moreover, it turns out that these diagonals are contained in a domain that possesses a simple structure. We expect that the new insight can be applied for several issues such as motion planning for closed kinematic chains or singularity analysis of their configuration spaces. In order to demonstrate practicality of the new method we present numerical examples.