Finite Kinematic Synthesis of a Cycloidal-Crank Mechanism for Function Generation

Abstract

The method of complex numbers is applied towards the kinematic synthesis of a planar geared five-bar cycloidal-crank mechanism for approximate function generation with finitely separated precision points. It is shown that up to 10 precision points can be obtained, and a closed-form solution is presented which yields up to 6 different mechanisms with a 6-point approximation. In this method, the designer has control over the design of the cycloidal crank regarding gear ratio and configuration. The method has been programmed for automatic digital computation on the IBM-360 system, and the program is made available to interested readers. An optimization method utilizing iterative application of the closed-form solution is outlined.