Optimum Dynamic Design of Planar Linkage Using Genetic Algorithms

High operating speed of a linkage will result in the shaking force, the shaking moment and the driving torque to change greatly. Although either mass-redistribution or counter-weight method is utilized, the balanced effects sometimes are not satisfactory, furthermore it is cumbersome to search for the global optimum solution using the conventional nonlinear optimization approaches. This paper proposes a new mixed mass redistribution method. The optimum dynamic design using the new method is invastigated based upon the genetic algorithms. The results calculated by counter weight method and mass-redistribution one and the new one are compared, it is shown that the new method can more efficiently reduce the shaking force/moment than the other methods before, and driving torque than the counter-weight one. Moreover, it is also demonstrated that the genetic algorithms can obtain optimum dynamic characteristics more effectively than the traditional nonlinear optimization technique. Last, the small element method is used to form the shape of links according to the optimized linkage design parameters