DESIGN OF A RECONFIGURABLE, MONOLITHIC COMPLIANT MECHANISM FOR A SIX-AXIS NANOMANIPULATOR

摘要

In general, compliant mechanisms are single-state devices, meaning there is a one-to-one relationship between the inputs (actuation) and outputs (mechanism motion). This is particularly troublesome in precision mechanisms which offer limited flexibility in performance characteristics for high cost. In this paper we demonstrate a method which was proposed in earlier work (2002) to make a six-axis compliant mechanism with reconfigurable performance characteristics. The mechanism was synthesized using CoMeT, a compliant mechanism design tool, and optimized via FEA simulation. Experimental results show that (1) mechanism transmission ratio can be reconfigured between negative and positive numbers (2) that dynamic mode shapes may be changed and (3) that natural frequencies may be independently reconfigured. A means to handle the competing material requirements of large range and high-bandwidth is briefly presented.