Method of qualitative spatial envisionment with applications to planar mechanism configuration modeling and planning

This paper describes a method for qualitatively representing and reasoning about spatial configurations of planar mechanisms. The method has direct relevance to, and implications for, computer-aided mechanism design and robotics. In particular, it can be used to solve spatial configuration problems where exact geometric knowledge is not available, and to provide guidance for the application of quantitative configuration modeling and planning methods. In this paper, two applications of this method are demonstrated. The first application is concerned with inferring the instantaneous configurations and coupler curves in one-degree-of-freedom planar linkages. The second application deals with planning collision-free paths for open-chain planar mechanisms moving among static obstacles.