Practical Structural Design Approach of Multiconfiguration Planar Single-Loop Metamorphic Mechanism with a Single Actuator

Abstract As a type of multiconfiguration mechanism that can operate in an under-actuated state, metamorphic mechanisms were proposed more than two decades ago and attracted significant interest. Studies on structural synthesis of metamorphic mechanisms tend to focus more on metamorphic techniques and the structural synthesis of source mechanisms for metamorphic mechanisms. By designing different constraint architectures of metamorphic joints, multistructures can be obtained from the same source metamorphic mechanism. To determine the constraint architectures of metamorphic joints and their different assembly combinations, a kinematic status matrix and a corresponding constraint status matrix are constructed based on the metamorphic cyclogram of a source mechanism. According to the equivalent resistance gradient model and the constraint status matrix, an equivalent resistance matrix for the metamorphic joints is proposed. A structural synthesis matrix of the metamorphic mechanism is then obtained from the equivalent resistance matrix by deducing the constraint form vectors of the metamorphic joints. Furthermore, a kinematic diagram synthesis of the source metamorphic mechanism of a planar single-loop metamorphic mechanism is proposed, which is based on only the 14 one- or zero-degrees-of-freedom linkage groups. The entire structural design method of a metamorphic mechanism is based on the structural synthesis matrix and is presented as a systematic process. Finally, the proposed structural design approach is illustrated by two examples to verify its feasibility and practicality. This study provides an effective method for designing a practical multi-mobility and multiconfiguration planar single-loop metamorphic mechanism with a single actuator.