Five Bar Mechanism

The goal of this project was to maximize the efficiency of a five-bar mechanism which served the purpose of picking up and dropping off a product at a desired location.  The mechanism was constructed with four bars, two actuators, and a gripper to produce the desired motion. The efficiency depended on the number of products picked up per cycle, the initial cost of the actuators, the cost of electricity, the energy used per cycle, and the number of cycles per year. 

To increase the efficiency the group decided to change out the actuators after changing the original material from steel to a magnesium alloy which decreased the required speed and torque the actuator needed to be able to produce to follow the trajectory. Lowering the mass dropped the needed speed and torque values, which corresponded to a lower price actuator. This manipulated the efficiency since one of the variables it relied on was the initial cost of the actuators. 

The process taken and validations achieved for the improved mechanism design can be seen in the report to the right.