Matteo Gallet

Planar linkages following a prescribed motion

Designing mechanical devices, called linkages, that draw a given plane curve has been a topic that interested engineers and mathematicians for hundreds of years, and recently also computer scientists. Already in 1876, Kempe proposed a procedure for solving the problem in full generality, but his constructions tend to be extremely complicated. We provide a novel algorithm that produces much simpler linkages, but works only for parametric curves. Our approach is to transform the problem into a factorization task over some noncommutative algebra. We show how to compute such a factorization, and how to use it to construct a linkage tracing a given curve.

Bond theory for pentapods and hexapods

This paper deals with the old and classical problem of determining necessary conditions for the overconstrained mobility of some mechanical device. In particular, we show that the mobility of pentapods/hexapods implies either a collinearity condition on the anchor points, or a geometric condition on the normal projections of base and platform points. The method is based on a specific compactification of the group of direct isometries of

Liaison linkages

{\mathbb{R}^{3}}

Computing the number of realizations of a Laman graph

R3.

Ambiguities in a Problem in Planar Geodesy

Motivated by results on the mobility of mechanical devices called pentapods, this paper deals with a mathematically freestanding problem, which we call Möbius Photogrammetry. Unlike traditional photogrammetry, which tries to recover a set of points in three-dimensional space from a finite set of central projection, we consider the problem of reconstructing a vector of points in

Erratum to: Möbius photogrammetry

{\mathbb{R}^3}