The synthesis of planar four-bar linkage for mixed motion and function generation

The synthesis of four-bar linkage has been extensively researched, but for a long time, the problem of motion generation, path generation, and function generation have been studied separately, and their integration has not drawn much attention. This paper presents a numerical synthesis procedure for four-bar linkage that combines motion generation and function generation. The procedure is divided into two categories which are named as dependent combination and independent combination. Five feasible cases for dependent combination and two feasible cases for independent combination are analyzed. For each of feasible combinations, fully constrained vector loop equations of four-bar linkage are formulated in a complex plane. We present numerical examples to illustrate the synthesis procedure and determine the defect-free four-bar linkages.