Compliant Manipulator Design method

Abstract

Current multi-DoF compliant manipulators are still rarely implemented in the industry because their range of motion (ROM) is limited as their designs are heavy and bulky or obtained by a serial set of multiple stacked flexure systems, which limits their compactness. The goal of this article is to overcome these limitations by considering them as an integrated multi-DoF compliant joint, either serial or parallel, and setting up a new method the Compliant Manipulator Design (COMAD)-method and investigate its performance. This method will combine the "Type synthesis of legs"-technique to include parallel kinematic solutions for the desired motion pattern whereafter the complete compliant solution space is obtained using the FACT-method. The method is applied for designing a 4-DoF-manipulator with a TTTR-motion pattern resulting in four new concepts composed of compactly aggregated wire flexures. After the concept selection, a demonstrator is manufactured which excellently possesses four decoupled motions with a relatively large ROM. This can be seen as a new milestone for designing multi-DoF compliant manipulators as it permits a larger ROM and better stiffness capabilities than those obtained from conventional methods because all compliant topologies are deflecting in series due to the parallel kinematic couplings within the multi-DoF flexure systems.