The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Optimal synthesis of a planar four-bar function generator based on imderect measure of structural error
Author:	Ellis, Robert
View Online:	njit-etd1998-055 (xii, 100 pages ~ 4.0 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Mechanical Engineering
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Mechanical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Fischer, Ian Sanford (Committee chair) Ji, Zhiming (Committee member) Chu, Taiming (Committee member)
Date:	1998-01
Keywords:	Machine design. Mechanics, Applied.
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	A novel technique for optimal synthesis of a planar four-bar function generator is presented. An indirect measure of structural error is used to formulate an objective function which, along with its derivatives, is straightforward to evaluate and results in an elegant and robust algorithm. Lagrange multipliers are used to incorporate the loop closure constraint into the objective function. In this thesis, the formulation of the objective function and the minimization algorithm are described, examples are presented, and the virtues and shortcomings of the algorithm are discussed.