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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