Kinematic synthesis using tree topologies

This paper presents a methodology for the description and finite-position dimensional synthesis of articulated systems with multiple end-effectors. The articulated system is represented as a rooted tree graph. Graph and dimensional synthesis theories are applied to determine when exact finite-position synthesis can be performed on the tree structures by considering the motion for all the possible subgraphs. Several examples of tree topologies are presented and synthesized. This theory has an immediate application on the design of novel multi-fingered hands.