Compliant Mechanism Design

Merve Acer received her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey in 2005, and her M.S. degree in Mechatronics Engineering at Sabanci University, Turkey in 2007. She is currently studying her Ph.D with the Microsystems Laboratory at Sabanci University under the the supervision of Prof. Dr. Asif Sabanovic.

Mechanisms with flexible joints are widely used in high precision systems, because the flexible joints provide high resolution, frictionless, smooth and continuous motion. These kinds of mechanisms are also cheaper than the other types of high precision mechanisms which use rigid joints. The main idea of these kind joints is that the deflections of the flexible elements provide the desired motion. In this work, a brief introduction of these mechanisms is given. The advantages and challenges of compliant mechanisms are discussed. The problems and their possible solutions proposed in the literature are introduced and the analysis of some representative high precision stages in the market and various flexure based mechanisms are presented. A planar parallel compliant mechanism is designed. The mathematical model of the mechanism is calculated by using separation of variables technique. Finally, the mechanism is manufactured by using laser cutting and water jet cutting techniques, open loop experiments of the mechanism are verified by actuating the piezo motors manually and by giving voltage signals.