An algorithm for automatic sketching of planar kinematic chains

One of the problems encountered in attempting to computerize type synthesis of mechanisms is that of automatically generating a computer graphics display of candidate kinematic chains or mechanisms. This paper presents the development of a computer algorithm for automatic sketching of kinematic chains as part of the computer-aided type synthesis process. Utilizing concepts from graph theory, it can be shown that a sketch of a kinematic chain can be obtained from its graph representation by simply transforming the graph into its line graph, and then sketching the line graph. The fundamentals of graph theory as they relate to the study of mechanisms are reviewed. Some new observations are made relating to graphs and their corresponding line graphs, and a novel procedure for transforming the graph into its line graph is presented. This is the basis of a sketching algorithm which is illustrated by computer-generated examples.