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Articulated mechanism design with a degree of freedom constraint
Author(s) -
Kawamoto A.,
Bendsøe M. P.,
Sigmund O.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.421
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1097-0207
pISSN - 0029-5981
DOI - 10.1002/nme.1119
Subject(s) - truss , representation (politics) , mathematics , mathematical optimization , computer science , engineering , structural engineering , politics , political science , law
This paper deals with design of articulated mechanism using a truss‐based ground‐structure representation. The proposed method can accommodate extremely large displacement by considering geometric non‐linearity. In addition, it can also control the mechanical degrees of freedom (DOF) of the resultant mechanism by using a DOF equation based on Maxwell's rule. The optimization is based on a relaxed formulation of an original integer problem and also involves developments directed at handling the redundancy inherent in the ground‐structure representation. One planar test example is selected as the basis for the developments so as to compare the proposed method with other alternative approaches including a graph‐theoretical enumeration approach which guarantees the identification of the globally optimal solution. Also, an inverter problem is treated where a continuation method is required in order to direct the optimization algorithm towards an integer solution. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.