Gramian-based optimal design of a dynamic stroke amplifier compliant micro-mechanism

—This paper presents a new method developed for the optimal design of microrobotic compliant mechanisms. It is based on a flexible building block method, called FlexIn, which uses an evolutionary approach, to optimize a truss-like structure made of building blocks. From the first design step, in addition to conventional mechanical criteria, dynamic gramianbased metrics can be considered in the optimization procedure to fit expected frequency responses of the synthesized mechanisms. A planar monolithic compliant coupling structure is obtained by the optimal design method to act as a stroke amplifier for piezoelectric stacked actuators, to operate in both static and dynamic motions, and to passively filter out undesirable vibrations. Finally, performance comparisons between some of the pseudo-optimal FlexIn synthetized compliant mechanisms demonstrate the interests of the proposed optimization method for the design of dynamic operating smart microrobotic structures.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: IROS
• Authors: Mathieu Grossard, Christine Rotinat-Libersa, Nicolas Chaillet
• Keywords: Compliant Mechanisms, IROS 2007, Microrobotic Compliant Mechanisms, Optimal Design, Robotics