MMM Exam Topics

5 December 2014
1. Twist and wrench, definition, mechanical interpretation. Derivation of the
screw axis and pitch from the angular and linear velocity (force and moment)
and vice versa. [Notes, Hunt, SS14-Z]
2. Joints, lower and higher pairs. Freedoms and constraints of a joint. Twists of
freedoms and wrenches of constraints of the lower pairs. [Hunt-Ch 1, Notes]
3. Centrodes. Cardan circles. [Hunt, Notes]
4. Cross product of screws. Spatial acceleration of a rigid body. Comparison with
the classical acceleration. [Notes, Featherstone]
5. Screw stiffness and flexibility of serial and parallel chains. Eigentwists and
eigenwrenches. [SS14-L]
6. Mechanism configuration space: definition, mobility, singularity. [Notes]
[Hunt ] Hunt, 1978, Kinematic geometry of mechanisms.
[SS12-Z] Zlatanov, Vector spaces, twists, and wrenches, presentation from
Summer Screws 2014.
[SS12-L] Lipkin. H., 2014, Elastic modelling, presentation from Summer Screws
2014.
[Featherstone] Featherstone, 2008, Rigid body dynamics algorithms.