ABSTRACT
In a kinematic analysis, positions, displacements, velocities, and accelerations of mechanism link locations of interest are determined either qualitatively or quantitatively. In a quantitative kinematic analysis, equations that fully describe the motion and higher order quantities of each mechanism link are used. In kinematic analyses it is often necessary to calculate the positions, displacements, velocities, and accelerations of particular mechanism link locations that are not directly specified in the kinematic equations. The MATLAB and SimMechanics files enable the user to efficiently conduct planar four-bar, slider-crank, and Stephenson III mechanism kinematic analyses. It should be noted that the principle of vector loop closure is applied in the MATLAB and SimMechanics files. The unknown variables calculated from formulate kinematic equations can be used in additional vector loop equations to calculate the positions, displacements, velocities, and accelerations of additional mechanism locations of interest.
