Four Cubes and Four Links Climbing an Obstacle

This animation shows one of the many possible series of actions for moving four cubes to a higher ground. Click on red cube to start animation You will see links moving over the cubes and moving the cubes. It is possible to move 4 cubes to the higher ground using the links, while keeping their orientation with respect to the ground. (The axes on top of the cubes are given as a reference. They will also face up at the end of the animation.) Additional link/joint actions are needed to adjust cube orientations, as seen in the animation. There are several joint actions that can be carried out simultaneously; most of them are shown in the animation. Although we assumed that a link can only move itself and a cube atteched to it, there are two actions that require one link to "carry" one cube and a nother moving link. These cases are indicated with the carrying link changing its color to red. Red-colored link cannot move, but can support the cube and the moving link. You need to refresh the page in order to restart the animation.