TY - GEN A1 - Meer, Klaus A1 - Schmitt, Burkhard A1 - Schreiber, Harold T1 - Dimensional Synthesis of Planar Stephenson-Mechanisms for Motion Generation by Circlepoint Search and Homotopy Methods T2 - Mechanism and Machine Theory N2 - The kinematic synthesis of Stephenson mechanisms for motion generation is often based on specifying arbitrary values for certain kinematic dimensions. If no appropriate values are known, an inadequate choice can make it impossible to find a good mechanism. In the present paper a synthesis method is described where kinematic dimensions can be chosen a priori (to meet side conditions, e.g., a limited area for the locations of the fixed pivots), but do not have to be chosen. A circlepoint search in combination with homotopy methods will be applied. Concerning the homotopy methods two approaches – via the Bézout number and the BKK bound – will be compared. Y1 - 2002 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094114X02000162 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/S0094-114X(02)00016-2 SN - 0094-114X VL - 37 IS - 7 SP - 717 EP - 737 ER -