Maryam Taherinezhad - Mechanical Engineering Faculty, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Saeed Amirkhani - Mechanical Engineering Faculty, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

In this paper we attend to input optimization of Geneva mechanism to improve its kinematic characteristic. The aim of this work is to reduce maximum acceleration and jerk, also to lowering shock at the beginning and the end of contact between driver and driven wheels. In order to optimization, first non-dimensional motion equations are extracted and then particle swarm algorithm with considering different objective functions is applied to optimize velocity of driven wheel to improve kinematic characteristic of Geneva mechanism. This work is done first for minimizing of maximum acceleration and jerk; then using the previous objective function considering shock at the beginning and the end of contact between driver and driven wheels is applied. At last a new objective function has been proposed to decrease the maximum acceleration, jerk and shock at the beginning and the end of contact between driver and driven wheels. Results in first optimization, showed 30% and 77% decrease in peak acceleration and jerk simultaneously, but notable increase in initial and final contact shocks. At second optimization considering absence of shock in beginning and end of contact led to 33% increase in acceleration and 30% decrease in peak jerk. In the third case, the best results were obtained, that led to 19% and 62% decrease in peak acceleration and peak jerk respectively and also, lower shock at the beginning and the end of contact between driver and driven wheels respect to constant input speed.

Particle Swarm Optimization; PSO; Geneva mechanism; Optimization