This paper focuses on the representation and synthesis of coupler curves of planar mechanisms using a deep neural network. While the path synthesis of planar mechanisms is not a new problem, the effective representation of coupler curves in the context of neural networks has not been fully explored. This study compares four commonly used features or representations of four-bar coupler curves: Fourier descriptors, wavelets, point coordinates, and images. The results demonstrate that these diverse representations can be unified using a generative AI framework called variational autoencoder (VAE). This study shows that a VAE can provide a standalone representation of a coupler curve, regardless of the input representation, and that the compact latent dimensions of the VAE can be used to describe coupler curves of four-bar linkages. Additionally, a new approach that utilizes a VAE in conjunction with a fully connected neural network to generate dimensional parameters of four-bar linkage mechanisms is proposed. This research presents a novel opportunity for the automated conceptual design of mechanisms for robots and machines.
In this paper, we discuss the convergence of recent advances in deep neural networks (DNNs) with the design of robotic mechanisms, which entails the conceptualization of the design problem as a learning problem from the space of design specifications to a parameterization of the space of mechanisms. We identify three key inter-related problems that are at the forefront of using the versatility of DNNs in solving mechanism design problems. The first problem is that of representation of mechanisms and their design specifications, where the representation challenges arise primarily from the non-Euclidean nature of the data. The second problem is that of developing a mapping from the space of design specifications to the mechanisms where, ideally, we would like to synthesize both type and dimensions of the mechanism for a wide variety of design specifications including path synthesis, motion synthesis, constraints on pivot locations, etc. The third problem is that of designing the neural network architecture for end-to-end training and generation of multiple candidate mechanisms for a given design specification. We also present a brief overview of the state-of-the-art on each of these problems and identify questions of potential interest to the research community.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 2126882
- PAR ID:
- 10488733
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering
- Volume:
- 23
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 1530-9827
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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