Paper by Erik D. Demaine

Reference:

Erik D. Demaine, Stefan Langerman, Joseph O'Rourke, and Jack Snoeyink, “Interlocked Open Linkages with Few Joints”, in Proceedings of the 18th Annual ACM Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2002), Barcelona, Spain, June 5–7, 2002, pages 189–198.

Abstract:

We advance the study of collections of open linkages in 3-space that may be interlocked in the sense that the linkages cannot be separated without one bar crossing through another. We consider chains of bars connected with rigid joints, revolute joints, or universal joints and explore the smallest number of chains and bars needed to achieve interlock. Whereas previous work used topological invariants that applied to single or to closed chains, this work relies on geometric invariants and concentrates on open chains.

Length:

The paper is 10 pages.

Availability:

The paper is available in PostScript (1818k) and PDF (254k).

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Related papers:

InterlockedLinkages_CGTA (Interlocked Open and Closed Linkages with Few Joints)

InterlockedLinkages_CCCG2001 (Short Interlocked Linkages)