Linkage Synthesis of a Four-Bar Mechanism for N Precision Points Using Simulated Annealing

This paper presents an alternative way of linkage synthesis by using a computational intelligence technique: Simulated Annealing. The technique allows to define n precision points of a desired path to be followed by a four-bar linkage (path generation problem). The synthesis problem is transformed into an optimization one in order to use the Simulated Annealing algorithm. With this approach, a path can be better specified since the user will be able to provide more “samples” than the usual limited number of five allowed by the classical methods. Several examples are shown to demonstrate the advantages of this alternative synthesis technique.