A New Methodology for Rapid Synthesis of Function Generators

Abstract

This paper presents the application of a new methodology for the rapid synthesis of a single-degree-of-freedom function generating linkages. Harmonic analysis and normalization are used as a means of evaluating linkage performance. The performance information for a large number of linkage types and dimensional variants are stored in a software-based library. A means whereby this library can he searched for linkages to meet prescribed performance criteria is discussed. The use of an optimization technique to ‘fine tune’ the library selections is introduced. Finally, an example of the use of the methodology is given for the synthesis of a linkage required to reproduce a particular performance requirement.