Abstract. This contribution shows that a method proposed previously, for the determination of the instantaneous centers of rotation of planar closed chains, can be generalized for the determination of the instantaneous screw axes of general one-degree-of-freedom spatial mechanisms. Hence, the approach presented in this paper can be applied to any of the closed chains that belong to any of the subgroups of the Euclidean group, SE(3), namely planar, spherical or chains associated with the Schönflies subgroups, among others. Furthermore it can be also applied to multi-loop mechanisms and even to closed chains that are exceptional o paradoxical, as indicated by Hervé.

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This paper presents a screw theory approach for the computation of the instantaneous rotation centers of indeterminate planar linkages. Since the end of the 19th century, the determination of the instantaneous rotation, or velocity centers of planar mechanisms has been an important topic in kinematics that has led to the well-known Aronhold–Kennedy theorem. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was found that there were planar mechanisms for which the application of the Aronhold–Kennedy theorem was unable to find all the instantaneous rotation centers (IRCs). These mechanisms were denominated complex or indeterminate. The beginning of this century saw a renewed interest in complex or indeterminate planar mechanisms. In this contribution, a new and simpler screw theory approach for the determination of indeterminate rotation centers of planar linkages is presented. The new approach provides a simpler method for setting up the equations. Furthermore, the algebraic equations to be solved are simpler than the ones published to date. The method is based on the systematic application of screw theory, isomorphic to the Lie algebra, se(3), of the Euclidean group, SE(3), and the invariant symmetric bilinear forms defined on se(3).

This paper analyzes the well known three axes theorem under the light of the Lie algebra se(3) of the Euclidean group, SE(3) and the symmetric bilinear forms that can be defined in this algebra. After a brief historical review of the Aronhold-Kennedy theorem and its spatial generalization, the main hypothesis is that the general version of the Aronhold-Kennedy theorem is basically the application of the Killing and Klein forms to the equation that relates the velocity states of three bodies regardless if they are free to move in the space, independent of each other, or they form part of a kinematic chain. Two representative examples are employed to illustrate the hypothesis, one where the rigid bodies are free to move in the space without any connections among them and other concerning a RCCC spatial mechanism.