A Dynamic Analysis of a Spatial Mechanism With a Passive Degree of Freedom

A method is developed for kinematic and dynamic analysis of a spatial mechanisms that has one or more links with a passive degree of freedom. The Sphere-Sphere (SS) link, the most commonly known link having a passive degree of freedom, is investigated to develop in detail displacement, velocity, and acceleration matrices for complete kinematics. The dynamic analysis of the RSSR mechanism is presented as an example, using the developed kinematic method for SS links and Euler’s equations of motion.