EME3017 Kinematics

Chapter 9: Synthesis of
Linkages

Prof. Hyungpil Moon

School of Mechanical Engineering
SungKyunKwan University
 Contents
• Type synthesis
• Slider mechanism
• Two position synthesis
• Three position synthesis
• Bloch’s four-bar synthesis
• Freudenstein’s equation
• Chebychev Polynomials
 Design Objective
• Casement-type windows
– Vertically pivoted
– Outward-swinging
– Ventilating windows
• Linkage operators for windows
– Can lock the window at various open
and closed positions
• Since 1906, 44 US patents
• Over 5M units are sold annually
• Customer demands
– Better insulation, multiple weather
stripping (insulating)
 Design Constraints
• The window must open 90 deg from the sill
• Window must slide at least 10.16cm to allow washing on both
sides of the window from inside
• An open sash(window) must leave 50.8cm for emergency exit
• The operate linkage must support the weight of window
• One degree of freedom
• Improved and better mechanical advantages
• When closed, mechanism must not extend beyond the plane of
sash toward the outside
• All parts must be between the sill and the sash
 Synthesis Categories
• Type synthesis
– Determine the type of mechanism
– Linkage, gears, cam, etc
• Number synthesis
– Determine the number of links and joints
– 4-bar, 6-bar, etc
• Dimensional synthesis
– Determine link lengths
 Tasks of kinematic synthesis
• Function generation
– Synthesize a mechanism which provides a prescribed angular motion of the output
link for a given angular motion of the input link
– Quick return 4-bar mechanism
• Path generation
– Synthesize a mechanism to guide a coupler point along a prescribed path
– Watt’s straight-line mechanism
• Body guidance
– Synthesize a mechanism to move a link through a prescribed set of sequential
positions (position and orientation)
– Coupler link guide line for 4-bar mechanism
 Things to consider
• Significant dimensions
– link lengths
– pivot–to–pivot distance,
– angle between bell–crank levers,
– cam–contour dimensions,
– cam–follower dimensions,
– eccentricities,
– gear ratios
• Starting position
• Mechanism of preconceived type
– ex) slider–crank, four–bar linkage, a cam with flat follower, geared five–bar,
Stephenson six–bar, Watt six–bar
 Type Synthesis
• Relations between the form and function of the linkage
• Questions need to be answered
1. # of links and joints for a desired DOF ?
2. What link types and how many?
3. How many different link sets satisfies the desired DOF?
4. How many link topologies can be formed?
5. How many unique topologies are available?
6. How many ways of grounding a link?
7. Is there any better inversion?
8. How many different links could serve as the input driver?
• Number synthesis: 1-3, Topological synthesis: 4-6, Topological analysis: 7-8
 Type Synthesis
# of pin joints
• Gruebler equation
– Mobility: F=3(n-1)-2f1
• For higher order links
– n-(F+3)=T+2Q+3P+…
• n=total # of links
• B=# of binary links
• T=# of ternary links
• Q=# of quarternary
• P=# of pentagonal
 Slider Mechanisms from Stephenson’s 6-
bar Chain
• Stephenson’s 6-bar chain
– Ternary links are not directly connected
 Slider Mechanisms from Watt’s 6-bar
Chain
• Watt six-bar
– The ternary links are directly connected
 Two-position synthesis of slider-crank
mechanisms
• B1 : r3+r2
• B2 : r3-r2
• Quick return
– Forward : B2 to B1
– Return : B1 to B2 Stroke: B1-B2 = 2r2

A2

A1

B2
B2 B1
 Two-position synthesis of crank-rocker
mechanisms
• Advantage over cam-follower
– No retaining spring
– Closer clearances A typical design problem: for a given Q and a specific ф, determine O2, r2

• Time ratio
– Q = (180+)/(180-)

Arbitrary choice
 Three-position synthesis using inversion
• Inverting on the output rocker

• Problem:
– Given 2, 12, 23, 31, 12, 23, 31
– Find L4, 4 inversion

L4

4
 Two Prescribed Positions of Coupler

• Midnormal lines
• How about three prescribed positions?
B1

A2 B2
A1

P12
 The Overlay Method
• Function generator
• Example: uniform
spacing of the
output rocker
 Bloch’s method
• Four-bar linkage synthesis for specified angular velocity and acceleration
of each link
• LCE and its derivatives in complex number

• In a vector notation

Angular velocities and accelerations

are specified (known) !!
 Bloch’s Four-bar Synthesis
• For specified angular velocities and accelerations for all links, find the
dimension of the links
• Use Cramer’s rule to solve homogeneous vector equation
Cramer’s rule

• Ex. (2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4) = (200, 85, 130, 0, -1000, -16000)
 Freudenstein’s equation
• Analytic synthesis of Four-bar linkage for three prescribed positions
• LCE

• Eliminate 3 and simplify to get

• If we specify three positions, we can solve this linearly.

 Chebychev’s Theorem
• The choice of real numbers, −1 ≤ 𝑥𝑖 ≤ 1, that makes the
value of max |(𝑥 − 𝑥1 )(𝑥 − 𝑥2 ) ⋯ (𝑥 − 𝑥𝑛 )| as small as
−1≤𝑥≤1
possible is:
(2𝑖 − 1)𝜋
𝑥𝑖 = cos , 𝑖 = 1,2, ⋯ , 𝑛
2𝑛
Furthermore, the minimum value is 1/2𝑛−1 .
 Chebychev Polynomials
• 𝑇𝑛 𝑥 = cos 𝑛 cos −1 (𝑥)
– 𝑇0 𝑥 = 1, 𝑇1 𝑥 = 𝑥, 𝑇2 𝑥 = 2𝑥 2 − 1
– 𝑇𝑛+1 𝑥 = 2𝑥𝑇𝑛 𝑥 - 𝑇𝑛−1 𝑥
• 𝑇𝑛 1 = 1, 𝑇𝑛 −1 = (−1)𝑛
• max 𝑇𝑛 (𝑥) = 1
𝑥
• 𝑇𝑛 𝑥 alternates between 1 exactly n+1 times

Solutions:
 Proof of Chebychev Theorem
• (Chebychev Polynomials) 𝑇𝑛 𝑥 = cos 𝑛 cos −1 (𝑥)
– Note 𝑇0 𝑥 = 1, 𝑇1 𝑥 = 𝑥, 𝑇𝑛+1 𝑥 = 2𝑥𝑇𝑛 𝑥 - 𝑇𝑛−1 𝑥
• Let 𝑥𝑖 be the zeros for 𝑇𝑛 𝑥
1 1
– Then, it is easy to see that 𝑥 − 𝑥1 𝑥 − 𝑥2 ⋯ 𝑥 − 𝑥𝑛 = 2𝑛−1 |𝑇𝑛 𝑥 | ≤ 2𝑛−1
– Suppose 𝑃(𝑥) is a smaller polynomial. Then, it MUST satisfy
1
• The leading term of P(x) is 𝑥 𝑛 , same as |𝑇𝑛 𝑥 |
2𝑛−1
1
• |P(x)| < for all x in [-1,1]
2𝑛−1

– However, this is a contradiction because

𝑇𝑛 (𝑥) 1
• Let 𝐹 𝑥 = 𝑃 𝑥 − 𝑛−1 , then F is a degree n polynomial because it changes sign n+1 times, 𝐹 1 = 𝑃 1 − <
2 2𝑛−1
𝜋 𝜋 1 2𝜋 2𝜋 1
0, 𝐹 cos = 𝑃 cos + > 0, 𝐹 cos = 𝑃 cos − < 0, and so on.
𝑛 𝑛 2𝑛−1 𝑛 𝑛 2𝑛−1
• However, the degree of F is no larger than n-1. Contradiction!
 Chebychev Interval
• For 𝑥0 = 𝑎, 𝑥1 , ⋯ , 𝑥𝑛 , 𝑥𝑛+1 =b,
1 𝜋 2𝑖−1
• ∆𝑥𝑖 = 𝑥𝑗 − 𝑥0 = 1 − cos
2 2𝑛

• Ex) x0 = 0, x4 = 90, n=3

– x1 = 6, x2 = 45, x3=84
 Example
• Design a linkage to generate the function 𝑦 = 𝑥 0.8 over
the range of 1 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 3 using thee precision points.
• Solution
– Use Chebyshev spacing
• x0 = 1, x4 = 3

• We get x1 = 1.134, x2 = 2.000, x3 = 2.866

• From 𝑦 = 𝑥 0.8 , we get y1 = 1.106, y2 = 1.741, y3 = 2.322
 Design Example (1)
• Synthesize a function generator of yj xj
1
the equation 𝑦 = over the range
𝑥
1 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 2 using three precision
postures. output input
– Plan
• Use Chebyshev spacing for x and y
• Find corresponding angular input and
output values
• Using these values, use Freudenstein
equations to solve variables of four bar
mechanism.
 Design Example (2)
• From Chebyshev spacing, x0 = 1, x4 = 2

• We get x1 = 1.067, x2 = 1.500, x3 = 1.933

• From the functional relation, we also get y1 = 0.937, y2
= 0.667, y3 = 0.517.
• We must choose staring angles for input and output as
well as total displacement angles for each.
 Design Example (3)
• For the input, choose
• For the output, choose
 Design Example (4)
• As we have three postures in angles, we use
Freudenstein equation to determine the link lengths.

• We have
 Design Example (5)
• By choosing r1 = 1.000 units
• r4 = 2.480, r2 = 2.480, r3 = 0.917
Thank you