Swept Volume and Its Application to Mechanical Design

Abstract

The swept volumes of moving objects are encountered extensively in solid modeling, robot manipulator workspace, manufacturing automation, mechanical space layout, and other areas, the study of swept volumes is an important basic theory for these areas. In the paper the calculating of swept volume is divided into two phases: the phase of determining of candidate boundaries of the swept volume and the phase of the trimming of candidate boundaries. The study has shown that the two-phase strategy is capable of calculating the swept volume which is applicable to mechanical layout design, therefore providing the basis for determining the workspace in mechanical design, the construction design of parts and the best layout.