3. Kinematic Analysis of Mechanism

After carefully working with vector loop equations for position, velocity, and acceleration MATLAB was used to create plots of the motion of this mechanism.

As shown above, for a relatively slow, constant, 3 rad/s input, the velocities of the links and of the train are amplified significantly at certain positions. Velocity is amplified the most for link 4 (the closest to link 2) and decreases for link 6. It then decreases by 0.5 of w6 since 0.5 is the gear ratio. It is interesting to note that at the second peak omega 4 is no longer amplified but omega 6 and omegaTrain are amplified.

As shown above, acceleration is mostly constant but is amplified at two positions. Interestingly, at the first two peaks alpha5 and alpha6 are not the same, but at the second two peaks they are the same (or almost).