I. Introduction & Background - AG

Designed by kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen, Jansen's linkage is a planar leg mechanism that generates a smooth walking motion. Using many legs combined together, he created a variety of kinetic sculptures, one known as the strandbeest. This mechanism has become a model for a walking leg, using the trajectory of the bottom foot joint and a rotary input.

In our mechanism, link A and link L are considered grounded links and are only separate to establish an orientation. They combine to be one diagonal, stationary ground link. Using this new simplification, the analysis can be split into two four-bar mechanisms, AMJB and AMCK (combined to have one degree of freedom), two couplers made by triangles BED and GHI, and quadrilateral CDFG. The couplers and quadrilateral both depend on the positions of the four-bar mechanisms meaning the entire mechanism only has one degree of freedom.

This project focused on analyzing the position, velocity, and acceleration response of each link depending on the input angle of link M. We were able to visualize the kinematics by fabricating the leg using materials from Texas InventionWorks. We were able to achieve the proper foot trajectory, motorize the mechanism, and build everything using bearings, press fits, and spacers.