Function generation synthesis of spherical 5R mechanism with regional spacing and Chebyshev approximation

Abstract

The Chebyshev approximation is well known to be applicable for the approximation of single input–single output functions by means of a function generator mechanism. The approximation method may be also applied to multi-input functions, although until recently, it was not used for function generation with multi-degrees-of-freedom mechanisms. In a recent study, the authors applied the approximation method to a two-degrees-of-freedom mechanism for the first time, however the selection and iteration of the design points at which the errors were minimized were not satisfactory. In this study, an alternative method of selection and iteration for these design points is introduced and the corresponding spacing is called the “regional spacing”. As a case study for the application of the approximation of multi-input functions, a spherical 5R mechanism is used to generate a two input-single-output function. The input joints of the mechanism are selected as one of the fixed joints and the moving mid-joint, whereas the remaining fixed joint represents the output. The synthesis problem is analytically formulated and presented in polynomial form for five and six unknown parameters. The synthesis problem for five unknown parameters is illustrated as a numerical example. Regional spacing is used for the selection and iteration of design points for the synthesis. The Chebyshev approximation along with the Remez algorithm is utilized to find the unknown construction parameters and the error of the function. The design points and the coefficients of the approximation polynomial are determined by numerical iteration using six moving points. At each iteration step, the design points are relocated at the extremum error points in their respective regions. Iterations are repeated until the magnitudes of the extremum point errors are approximately equal. Finally, the construction parameters of the mechanism are determined and the variation of the percentage error between the desired and generated function values is obtained.