Optimal synthesis of adjustable planar four-bar crank-rocker type mechanisms for approximate multi-path generation

• Multiple desired coupler paths
• Paths prescribed by large number of points
• Optimization based synthesis of adjustable four-bar mechanism
• Least square based circle fitting approach
• Efficient due to less number of parameters in the search space

This paper deals with an optimization based method for synthesis of adjustable planar four-bar, crank-rocker mechanisms. For multiple different and desired paths to be traced by a point on the coupler, a two stage method first determines the parameters of the possible driving dyads. Then the remaining mechanism parameters are determined in the second stage where a least-squares based circle-fitting procedure is used. Compared to existing formulations, the optimization method uses less number of design variables. Two numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed synthesis method.

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