Synthesis of Discontinuously Movable Mechanisms with Bifurcation

Discontinuously movable mechanisms are a type of peculiar mechanisms with two or more motion modes. The mechanism usually has a singular position, from which it bifurcates into different motion modes and works independently. There are various reasons for such mechanisms to have the characteristic; therefore, methods for the synthesis of discontinuously movable mechanisms depend on their features. The purpose of this paper is to characterize the discontinuously movable mechanisms and develop a method for the synthesis of such mechanisms. Two types of discontinuously movable mechanisms are used as the illustration for synthesis. Their motions of the resulting mechanisms are verified via CAD simulations.