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Main Authors: A, Mohanraj, Prasath, S Ganga
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.14958
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author A, Mohanraj
Prasath, S Ganga
author_facet A, Mohanraj
Prasath, S Ganga
contents Kinematics of mechanisms is intricately coupled to their geometry and their utility often arises out of the ability to perform reproducible motion with fewer actuating degrees of freedom. In this article, we explore the assembly of scissor-units, each made of two rigid linear members connected by a pin joint. The assembly has a single degree of freedom, where actuating any single unit results in a shape change of the entire assembly. We derive expressions for the effective curvature of the unit and the trajectory of the mechanism's tip as a function of the geometric variables which we then use as the basis to program two tasks in the mechanism: shape morphing and writing. By phrasing these tasks as optimization problems and utilizing the differentiable simulation framework, we arrive at solutions that are then tested in table-top experiments. Our results show that the geometry of scissor assemblies can be leveraged for automated navigation and inspection in complex domains, in light of the optimization framework. However, we highlight that the challenges associated with rapid programming and error-free implementation in experiments without feedback still remain.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_14958
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Morphing of and writing with a scissor linkage mechanism
A, Mohanraj
Prasath, S Ganga
Robotics
Computational Geometry
Kinematics of mechanisms is intricately coupled to their geometry and their utility often arises out of the ability to perform reproducible motion with fewer actuating degrees of freedom. In this article, we explore the assembly of scissor-units, each made of two rigid linear members connected by a pin joint. The assembly has a single degree of freedom, where actuating any single unit results in a shape change of the entire assembly. We derive expressions for the effective curvature of the unit and the trajectory of the mechanism's tip as a function of the geometric variables which we then use as the basis to program two tasks in the mechanism: shape morphing and writing. By phrasing these tasks as optimization problems and utilizing the differentiable simulation framework, we arrive at solutions that are then tested in table-top experiments. Our results show that the geometry of scissor assemblies can be leveraged for automated navigation and inspection in complex domains, in light of the optimization framework. However, we highlight that the challenges associated with rapid programming and error-free implementation in experiments without feedback still remain.
title Morphing of and writing with a scissor linkage mechanism
topic Robotics
Computational Geometry
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.14958