Kinematical synthesis of 1-dof mechanisms using finite elements and genetic algorithms

The energy-based error function, which has demonstrated such good behaviour in the optimization via second-order Newton-Raphson methods, presented some limitations. To solve them, a new distance-based error function has been developed. Simultaneously, new finite elements have been created to represent some joints and kinematic elements. The need to address some specific configuration problems has led to the development of a correction algorithm.