Compliance Matrix Mapping Method

Abstract

This master’s thesis was carried out as part of the SilkTouch Project, a collaborative research initiative between Delft University of Technology and VDL ETG Technology & Development B.V. My specific objective was to develop and investigate a mechanism that can operate a vacuum transfer door without generating contamination. This requirement naturally directed the research towards compliant mechanisms, which generate motion through elastic deformation rather than sliding or rolling contact.

The literature study therefore reviewed vacuum transfer door technology and compliant rotary joints for this application. It showed that suitable joints must combine high mobility with high off-axis stiffness, but that quantitative comparison data is limited. It also identified two relevant door-motion types, L-motion and flapping, which provided the starting point for the main research.

The main research initially continued from this application by exploring linkage topologies for compliant mechanism synthesis. However, the large motion range made parasitic motion, complex loading and the coupling between kinematic and structural behaviour too important to treat as secondary effects. As a result, the focus shifted from designing one specific door mechanism towards developing a modelling approach for large-range planar compliant mechanisms.

This led to the compliance matrix mapping method (CMMM), a reduced-order method intended to support fast early-stage evaluation while still accounting for large rotations, parasitic motion and stiffness behaviour. Comparisons with finite-element reference models showed that CMMM can reproduce the main trajectory and stiffness trends with substantially lower computation time, while larger deviations occur for more complex mechanisms and sensitive translational components. A case study on a particle-free vacuum transfer door further showed that mechanism selection cannot be based on topology alone: stiffness, joint mobility, footprint and implementation constraints must all be considered. Overall, the thesis establishes CMMM as groundwork for early-stage design of large-range planar compliant mechanisms, while further refinement, broader comparison and experimental validation remain necessary.