Optimal synthesis of a planar mechanism using Matlab: Example of slider crank in a rowing motion

Abstract

This paper illustrates the conducted effort to introduce the methodology of optimal synthesis of mechanisms through an engineering problem under Matlab. This project is part of a first course on poly-articulated mechanisms and robotics at the graduate level. The course combines both the theoretical and implementation under Matlab aspects to achieve its goals. The example of the rowing machine is considered to introduce the crank-slider mechanism and the kinematic analysis using complex numbers. The mechanism is associated with a spring to ensure the device simulating the resistance in the rowing bench simulator. The optimal synthesis problem is formulated for the desired effort to perform and solved using the Sequential Quadratic Programming method. All developments are implemented under Matlab.

Keywords

• optimal synthesis
• slider-crank
• kinematic analysis
• matlab