An Integrated System for Design of Mechanisms by an Expert System—Domes: Applications

Two mechanism design problems are tested through the developed expert system DOMES (Design Of Mechanism by an Expert System) to check its performance. The two problems are Variable Stroke Piston Engine design by Freudenstein and Maki [16] and Robot Gripper design by Datseris and Palm [19]. The results from these two applications indicate that the automated techniques effectively identify all previously obtained solutions via manual techniques. Additional solutions are also identified and several errors of the manual process are detected. The developed methodologies and software of DOMES appear to perform a complete and unbiased search of all possible candidate designs and are not prone to the errors of the manual process.