Instantaneous Center of Velocity

Consider two links, Link i , and Link j .

Definition. The velocity center ij is the common point on i (or its extension) and on j
(or its extension), which has the same velocity.
The velocity center ij is sometimes called the instantaneous center ij , or the
instantaneous center of Link j with respect to Link i . (For a reason that will soon
become apparent. See Property C)
It follows from the definition that:
Property A. The velocity center ij is the same as the velocity center ji .
Property B. If i = 1 , i.e., Link i is the ground, then the instantaneous center 1 j is the
point on j which has zero velocity.
Property C. The instantaneous center ij is a point on j which has zero velocity with
respect to an observer, which is fixed to Link i .
Property D. The instantaneous center 1 j can be obtained by knowing the direction of
the velocities v A and v B of two distinct points, A and B , provided that
v A is not perpendicular to the line A B . This is demonstrated in Figure
1(a) for the case where v A is not parallel to v B , and in Figure 1(b) for the
case where the velocities are parallel to each other. Note that in these
figures, C is the instantaneous center of the link with respect to the ground.

vB

vA

vA

B
A

A
C

vB

(a)

(b)
Figure 1

Property E. If the v A is perpendicular to A B , then necessarily v B is perpendicular to

A B as well. The instantaneous center 1 j can be obtained in this case by
knowing v A and v B (direction and magnitude). This is demonstrated in
Figure 2(a) and Figure 2(b) for the case where v A v B , and in Figure 2(c)
for the case where v A = v B .

vA

vA

vB

C
C

(a)

B
vB

(b)

vB
vA

A
(c)

Figure 2

Property F. (Kennedys Theorem) The three velocity centers ij , ik , and jk , of three

links, i , j and k , lie on a straight line.

Perhaps Property F is the most celebrated of all, but it cannot be applied unless at least
four other instantaneous centers have been determined first by application of some of the
other properties A to E.