The 5-Bar Linkage (5BL) is a planar robot design that is mechanically far simpler than standard x-y gantry style planar robots. While simpler and cheaper to construct, the kinematics of the 5BL are non-linear and more complex than the gantry style. Making open-source path control software available for 5BL style robots, would greatly increase accessibility to planar robots such as laser cutters, 3D printers, and CNC mills. Singularities, working modes, and error sensitivity are discussed and analyzed. Finally, a simple transform to approximate the forward and inverse kinematics is proposed
