Computer-Aided Mechanical Assembly Design

Automatic transmission	Chain	Spatial geneva cam
2D configuration space	3D configuration space	Configuration space composition

Participants

Students

This research is part of the Geometric Modelling and Computer Graphics Laboratory , the Computer Aided Design Laboratory , and the Visualization Center, Purdue University, USA.

Goals

We have shown that configuration space, which dates back to the past century, is a paradigm for major advances in computer-aided mechanical design because it is a systematic and comprehensive computational framework within which practical contact analysis and mechanical systems design tasks can be automated for many applications. It improves upon previous work in mechanical engineering and robotics by automating unexpected contact change analysis, and upon previous work in computational geometry and motion planning by providing algorithms that handle curved geometry, many moving parts, and well-defined classes of useful mechanical systems.

Our current research focuses on:

• Tolerance envelope computation of parametric parts
• Kinematic tolerance synthesis
• Parametric design of mechanical systems
• Spatial fixed-axes mechanism analysis

Related courses

• Computational Geometry
• Seminar on computer graphics and geometric modeling

Project description

All publications

Most recent publications

• "Tolerance envelopes of parametric planar part models"
  Y. Berman and L. Joskowicz
  Proc. of the 8th CIRP Seminar on Computer-Aided Tolerancing, Charlotte, NC, USA, April 2003, pp 102--108.
  Abstract          PDF

• "Kinematic analysis of spatial fixed-axes higher pairs using configuration spaces"
  K-J. Kim, E.Sacks, L. Joskowicz
  Computer-Aided Design, Vol. 35(3) 2003, pp. 279-291.
  Abstract          PDF

• "Redesign of a spatial gear pair using configuration spaces"
  E. Sacks, L. Joskowicz, R. Schultheiss, and U. Hinze
  Proc. of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conferences , Montreal, Canada, September 2002.
  Abstract          PDF

• "Robust kinematic synthesis of mechanical systems"
  E. Sacks, L. Joskowicz, and R. Schultheiss
  Proc. the American Society for Precision Engineering. Topical meeting: Tolerance Modeling and Analysis, North Carolina, USA, 2002 and Proc. of the Int. Symp. on Multibody Systems and Mechatronics, Mexico City, Sept. 2002, pp. 345-356.
  Abstract          PDF

• "Kinematic synthesis"
  M. McCarthy and L. Joskowicz
  Chapter in the book Formal Engineering Design Synthesis E.K. Antonsson and J. Cagan editors, Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 321-362, ISBN 0-521-79247-9.

Funding

• "Vision based active robot navigation", (with I. Shimshoni, Technion, and R. Basri, Weizmann Institute), Ministry of Science, 4/2000-4/2003.

• "Computer-aided contact analysis and mechanical system design using configuration spaces", (with Prof. E. Sacks, Purdue) Israel Academy of Sciences, Grant 98/536, 10/1998-10/2001.

• "Automatic allocation of functional tolerances and quantification of robustness" (with Prof E. Sacks, Purdue) Ford University Research Grant, 10/1998-10/1999.

• Prof. Sacks is also supported by NSF grants CCR-9617600 and CCR-9505745 and by the Purdue Center for Computational Image Analysis and Scientific Visualization.