In the digital workflow of prosthetic and restorative dentistry, mechanical articulators are being replaced and/or supplemented by virtual articulators. These virtual articulators, among others, present the following two advantages:

• They enable to perform a kinematic analysis of the occlusion
• They enable to correct in a kinematic way the dental prosthesis and indirect dental restorations statically designed using dental CAD/CAM systems

Furthermore, in recent years, to facilitate the choice and management of virtual articulators, virtual articulators based on mechanical articulators have been developed (figure 1). In addition, these virtual articulators based on mechanical articulators also have the following advantages:

• They allow to compare the results obtained with the virtual articulators with the results obtained with the mechanical articulators
• They allow the introduction of new settings that do not exist in mechanical articulators

Therefore, these mechanical articulators based on virtual articulators have been integrated in most of the dental computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems. It should be noted that the members of this research group have been pioneers in the development of these virtual articulators.  Thus, the aim of this research line is to continue with the analysis and development of these virtual articulators.

The progress made to date in this research line has been disseminated through articles published in scientific journals and communications presented at international congresses.