Investigation of balancing problem for a planar mechanism using genetic algorithm

In this study, optimal balancing of a planar articulated mechanism is investigated to minimize the shaking force and moment fluctuations. Balancing of a four-bar mechanism is formulated as an optimization problem. On the other hand, an objective function based on the sub-components of shaking force and moment is constituted, and design variables consisting of kinematic and dynamic parameters are defined. Genetic algorithm is used to solve the optimization problem under the appropriate constraints. By using commercial simulation software, optimized values of design variables are also tested to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed optimization process. This work provides a practical method for reducing the shaking force and moment fluctuations. The results show that both the structure of objective function and particularly the selection of weighting factors have a crucial role to obtain the optimum values of design parameters. By adjusting the value of weighting factor according to the relative sensitivity of the related term, there is a certain decrease at the shaking force and moment fluctuations. Moreover, these arrangements also decrease the initiative of mechanism designer on choosing the values of weighting factors.