A 6R Metamorphic Mechanism with a Novel Variable-Axis Joint

This paper presents a 6R metamorphic mechanism with a novel variable-axis joint, which can achieve compliant switching between motion branches. This paper involves the utilization of a self-coupling variable-axis joint to increase the degree of freedom of the metamorphic mechanism in the vicinity of the bifurcation point. The expansion from the bifurcation point to the bifurcation domains facilitates the switching of motion branches without traversing the bifurcation point. The results show that this variable-axis joint can achieve compliant switching and also enable the mechanism to autonomously converge to the regular motion branch. The findings confirmed the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed method for achieving compliant switching between metamorphic mechanism motion branches.