The configuration space of arachnoid mechanisms

The configuration spaces of arachnoid mechanisms are analyzed in this paper. These mechanisms consist of k branches each of which has an arbitrary number of links and a fixed initial point, while all branches end at one common end-point. It is shown that generically, the configuration spaces of such mechanisms are manifolds, and the conditions for the exceptional cases are determined. The configuration space of planar arachnoid mechanisms having k branches, each with two links is analyzed for both the non-singular and the singular cases.