Algorithm to Identify the Type of Degrees of Freedom in Kinematic Chains

An efficient and simple algorithm is developed to classify whether a kinematic chain has total degree of freedom or partial degree of freedom. The developed algorithm uses the sequential removal of binary link strings from the given kinematic chain and can be applied to both planar and nonplanar kinematic chains. The developed algorithm is successfully applied to the enumeration of nonfractionated kinematic chains. Since the algorithm is systematic and efficient, it can be applied to the more complex kinematic chains which have not been reported in the literature yet.