rjnevels
July 19, 2025, 9:31pm
1
Hey y’all, I gave a presentation on my project about designing mechanical linkages at the maker showcase, and thought I’d throw some of that into a post here.
Here’s the website I made for making linkages: Canvas App (it doesn’t work on mobile yet). You can click and drag to design a linkage and also generate an svg file to laser cut. There are bugs and usability issues and such but I plan to keep improving it. The eventual goal is to make it like a boxes.py/festi tool but for linkages. All the code is on GitHub: GitHub - robz/Linkages6: yet another linkage ui/simulator to rule them all
Here are some things related to linkages that I find inspiring:
Intro to a mechanical walker/standbeests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFaAjR_RRJs
Mechanical linkages:
A mechanical linkage is an assembly of systems connected so as to manage forces and movement. The movement of a body, or link, is studied using geometry so the link is considered to be rigid. The connections between links are modeled as providing ideal movement, pure rotation or sliding for example, and are called joints. A linkage modeled as a network of rigid links and ideal joints is called a kinematic chain.
Linkages may be constructed from open chains, closed chains, or a combination of ...
In the study of mechanisms, a four-bar linkage, also called a four-bar, is the simplest closed-chain movable linkage. It consists of four bodies, called bars or links, connected in a loop by four joints. Generally, the joints are configured so the links move in parallel planes, and the assembly is called a planar four-bar linkage. Spherical and spatial four-bar linkages also exist and are used in practice.
Planar four-bar linkages are constructed from four links connected in a loop by four one-d...
Animatronics applications: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfznnKUwywQ
Animatronics design on etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1370827116/digital-file-sisyphus-automata-kinetic?ref=yr_purchases
8 Likes
bwatt
July 19, 2025, 11:05pm
2
Great presentation and thanks for the link to your Github repository.
1 Like
RDChilders
July 20, 2025, 3:28pm
3
Thanks for sharing, Robby.
valerie
July 20, 2025, 3:42pm
4
Really awesome presentation @rjnevels ! Very cool project and nice to get to chat with you a bit
1 Like
