Multi-phase motion generation of five-bar mechanisms with prescribed rigid-body tolerances

This work presents a technique for synthesizing adjustable planar, five-bar motion generators to approximate prescribed rigid-body positions and satisfy rigid-body positions with prescribed tolerances. This method is an extension of the adjustable planar five-bar motion generation method introduced by the authors (1). By incorporating rigid-body point tolerances in the rigid-body displacement matrices, the calculated circle and center point curves of the five-bar mechanism become circle and/or center point regions. From these regions, fixed and moving pivots for the five-bar mechanism can be selected that approximate the prescribed rigid-body positions and satisfy rigid-body positions with prescribed tolerances. The example in this work considers two-phase moving pivot adjustments in the planar five-bar motion generator.