Abstract
Abstract This paper presents the development of a unified approach to optimal synthesis of mechanisms using exact gradients. The uniqueness of this approach lies in its ability to find optimal solutions to different type of mechanism problems in a systematic and efficient manner. In this approach, the exact gradients necessary for optimization are developed using a generalized methodical solution procedure based on matrix methods. This enables direct utilization of efficient gradient-based optimization methods in the mechanism synthesis process, thus eliminating the need for time-consuming direct search methods, or, the use of finite difference approximate methods to estimate gradients during optimization. The development of exact gradients and its integration with mechanism synthesis process, thus, offers the most effective approach for finding optimal solutions in generic mechanisms.