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Blad, Thijs (author), van Ostayen, R.A.J. (author), Herder, J.L. (author), Tolou, N. (author)The usually high eigenfrequencies of miniaturized oscillators can be significantly lowered by reducing the stiffness through stiffness compensation. In this work, a mechanical design for a compliant ortho-planar mechanism is proposed in which the stiffness is compensated to such a degree that it can be identified as statically balanced. The...journal article 2022
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Blad, Thijs (author), van Ostayen, R.A.J. (author), Tolou, N. (author)Compliant ortho-planar mechanisms can be fabricated from a single sheet of material and they can move out of the plane in which they are fabricated. In this work, a design of such a mechanism is proposed in which stiffness compensation is applied. With a finite-element model, the force-deflection relation of the buckled mechanism was modelled...journal article 2021
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Mariello, M. (author), Blad, Thijs (author), Mastronardi, V. M. (author), Madaro, F. (author), Guido, F. (author), Staufer, U. (author), Tolou, N. (author), De Vittorio, M. (author)There is a high demand for novel flexible micro-devices for energy harvesting from low-frequency and random mechanical sources. The research of new functional designs is required to strategically enhance the performances and to increase the control on mechanical flexibility. In this work we report the fabrication and characterization of bi...journal article 2021
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Blad, Thijs (author), van Ostayen, R.A.J. (author), Tolou, N. (author)In this paper a method is demonstrated for tuning the stiffness of building blocks for statically balanced compliant ortho-planar mechanisms. Three post-buckled mechanisms are proposed where the flexural rigidity can be manipulated over a part of their length in order to tune the ratio between the first two critical loads. A sensitivity...journal article 2021
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Pan, Diankun (author), Wu, Zhangming (author), Dai, Fuhong (author), Tolou, N. (author)In this paper, a novel design concept and manufacturing method for the compliant bistable structure is proposed. The pulsed laser technique is utilized as the manufacturing method for both the fabrication and the introduction of desired pre-stresses, simultaneously. Based on this concept, a novel bistable structure consisted of one pre...journal article 2020
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Blad, Thijs (author), Tolou, N. (author)Although motion energy harvesting at the small scales has been a research topic for over 20 years, the implementation of such generators remains limited in practice. One of the most important contributing factors here is the poor performance of these devices under low-frequency excitation. In this research, a classification of miniaturised...journal article 2019
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Farhadi Machekposhti, D. (author), Herder, J.L. (author), Tolou, N. (author)Microtransmission mechanisms made of elastic materials present an opportunity for exploring scalable mechanical systems integrated with sophisticated functionalities. This paper shows how the fundamentally limited range of motion in elastic mechanisms can be circumvented to create a frequency doubling functionality analog to angular velocity...journal article 2019
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Sweers, K. V. (author), Kuppens, P.R. (author), Tolou, N. (author)Residual stress from thermal oxidation can cause plastic deformation in silicon microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). This paper presents a novel method to distinguish elastic and plastic strain in silicon beams, by removing the oxide layer to show the plastic strain. A lever mechanism is used as a mechanical amplifier. The plasticity model...conference paper 2019
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Kuppens, P.R. (author), Herder, J.L. (author), Tolou, N. (author)Stiffness in compliant micro mechanisms can negatively affect performance. Current methods for stiffness reduction in micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) consume power, have a large footprint or are relatively complex to manufacture. In this paper stiffness is reduced by static balancing. A building block commonly used for stiffness...journal article 2019
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Blad, Thijs (author), Tolou, N. (author)Although motion energy harvesting at the small scales has been a research topic for over 20 years, the implementation of such generators remains limited in practice. One of the most important contributing factors here is the poor performance of these devices under low-frequency excitation. In this research, a new metric is proposed to...journal article 2019
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Farhadi Machekposhti, D. (author), Herder, J.L. (author), Semon, Guy (author), Tolou, N. (author)A method is introduced to design compliant micro transmission mechanisms which double the motion frequency of a cyclic input motion. Compliant embodiments are generated based on exploiting the singularity in a double-slider mechanism, which provides building blocks with a frequency-multiplication factor of two. It is shown that the proposed...journal article 2018
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- Tolou, N. (author) conference paper 2014
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- Tolou, N. (author) conference paper 2014
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Herder, J.L. (author), Tolou, N. (author)Energy harvester comprising a mass (2) that is subjectable to environmental forces for bringing it into the status of a moving mass, and means (5) linked to the mass (2) for converting and storing of energy embodied in the moving mass, which means (5) are arranged for subsequent release of said energy, wherein the mass (2) is part of a compliant...patent 2013
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Lassooij, J. (author), Tolou, N. (author), Tortora, G. (author), Caccavaro, S. (author), Menciassi, A. (author), Herder, J.L. (author)This article presents the design of a newly developed 2DoF robotic arm with a novel statically balanced and bi-stable compliant grasper as the end effector for laparoscopic surgery application. The arm is based on internal motors actuating 2 rotational DoFs: pitch and roll. The positive stiffness of the monolithic grasper has been compensated...journal article 2012
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Tolou, N. (author), Herder, J.L. (author)Micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) comprising a substrate or substrate parts, and a compliant first segment or segments within the substrate or substrate parts with a predefined positive stiffness, wherein the first segment or segments is or are statically balanced. This is embodied by applying a second segment or segments within the...patent 2012
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Simi, M. (author), Tolou, N. (author), Valdastri, P. (author), Herder, J.L. (author), Menciassi, A. (author), Dario, P. (author)A novel compliant Magnetic Levitation System (MLS) for a wired miniature surgical camera robot was designed, modeled and fabricated. The robot is composed of two main parts, head and tail, linked by a compliant beam. The tail module embeds two magnets for anchoring and manual rough translation. The head module incorporates two motorized donut...journal article 2012
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Dunning, A.G. (author), Tolou, N. (author), Herder, J. (author)For many applications in precision engineering, a six degrees of freedom (DoF) compliant stage (CS) with zero stiffness is desirable, to deal with problems like backlash, friction, lubrication, and at the same time, reduce the actuation force. To this end, the compliant stage (also known as compliant mechanism) can be statically balanced with a...journal article 2011
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Herder, J.L. (author), Barrari, A. (author), Tolou, N. (author)Yet another journal? And what is the windmill about? Those are two questions that we heard a lot lately. Yes, another journal, or rather, a different journal, called Mechanical Sciences (MS). The main difference is that the journal is open access, of which there are not many in the field of mechanical sciences. Grant agencies more and more...journal article 2010
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Tolou, N. (author), Herder, J.L. (author)The deflection of compliant mechanism (CM) which involves geometrical nonlinearity due to large deflection of members continues to be an interesting problem in mechanical systems. This paper deals with an analytical investigation of large deflections in compliant mechanisms. The main objective is to propose a convenient method of solution for...journal article 2009