Introduction

LinkageDesigner is an application package for virtual prototyping linkages in Mathematica. It is designed to analyse, synthesize and simulate linkages with serial chain, tree and graph structure. Using the symbolic calculation capabilities of Mathematica, it supports fully parametrized linkage definition and analysis too. LinkageDesigner can calculate the velocity, angular velocity, acceleration, angular acceleration or even higher order derivatives of any links in closed form. The package has an extensive support for visualizing and animating linkages. Linkages can be displayed or animated in Mathematica notebook, in Dynamic Visualizer, can be exported to LiveGraphics3D or a VRM97 world.