SPACEBAR: kinematic design by computer graphics

The development of kinematic mechanisms on the design board is often an extremely complex and time-consuming task. The SPACEBAR pre-gram allows the direct design and analysis of mechanisms on the terminal screen. All variables including linkage geometry, stiffness, and applied loading conditions can be input and/or changed from the terminal. The data can be described and displayed in three dimensions. All mechanism configurations can be cycled through their range of travel and viewed in their various geometric positions, again in three dimensions. Output data includes geometric positioning in orthogonal co-ordinates of each node point in the mechanism, velocity and acceleration of the mechanism node points throughout its range of travel, and internal loads and displacements of the individual node points and linkages. All analysis calculations are performed at the v.d.u. and take, at most, a few seconds to complete. Output data can be viewed at the scope and also printed at the discretion of the user.