Monolithic binary stiffness building blocks for mechanical digital machines

We introduce two essential building blocks with binary stiffness for mechanical digital machines. The large scale fully compliant mechanisms have rectilinear and rotational kinematics and use a new V-shaped negative stiffness structure to create two extreme states of stiffness by static balancing. The use of a mechanical bistable switch...

Static balancing of an inverted pendulum with prestressed torsion bars

This paper presents a method for the design of a statically balanced inverted pendulum. The non-linear moment-rotation characteristic of the pendulum's weight is approximated by a piecewise linear characteristic. Each transition is realized by engaging or disengaging one or more torsion bars, by means of mechanical stops. The whole set of...

Gravity balanced compliant shell mechanisms

The research on compliant shell mechanisms is a new and promising expansion of the well established compliant mechanisms research area. Benefits of compliant shell mechanisms include being spatial and slender, having organic shapes and their high tailorability of the load-displacement response. This work focusses on the design of a shell with...

A monolithic compliant large-range gravity balancer

A new monolithic fully compliant gravity balancer is designed with help of a design approach based on shape optimization. The balancer consists of one single clamped-clamped complex-shaped beam on which a weight is attached. The beam is modeled as a planar isogeometric Bernoulli beam. The goal function of the optimization consists of an...