The Motion of Compliantly-Connected Rigid Bodies in Contact, Part II: A System for Analyzing Designs for Assembly

摘要

The design of mechanical devices and the planning to assemble them should not be independent activities. A new, fully algorithmic, combinatorially precise approach is introduced to designing devices so that they are easy to assemble and (optionally) hard to disassemble. This analysis can be used to validate good designs, and can be iterated to generate improved designs. The approach is based on an algorithm for predicting the motion of flexible objects in contact; the flexible objects have rotationally passively compliant members, which deform when they experience contact forces from the environment. Such objects are intended to model snap-fastener-type devices, which are very useful in design for assembly. The algorithm is based on the theory in ADA 214 135; this paper describes the details of the algorithm, its implementation in a system for predicting and analyzing the motion of snap-fastener-type devices, and experiments we ran using the system to analyze and design particular devices. (JHD)