2. Design Process

I began designing my linkage system in the Planar Mechanism Kinematic Simulator and quickly iterated through many ideas in order to find a configuration that could fit in a relatively small space and that would work for a full rotation of the input link. I did this to prepare for motorization so that I could use a regular motor as opposed to a servomotor and so that I would not have to worry about potentially breaking the mechanism with the motor by going outside the designed for input link angle range.

Once the link lengths and positions were decided, I switched over to Solidworks to design the actual parts. A screenshot of the final assembly is shown below. Using mate relations, I was able to confirm one final time that it would travel through a full input link rotation without any internal interferences. I designed the input link with a different hole shape so that it could easily slide onto a motor that I already had.