2010
This doctoral work contributes in two main aspects: (i) closed form (analytical) force-deformation models for compliant mechanisms, and (ii) assessment of permanent deformations and / or manu facturing errors in mechanisms and manipulators (i.e. kinematic identification).
In aspect (i) above, we augment the current state of the art in the following areas: (1) For planar compliant mechanisms whose elasticity is concentrated in limbs with cantilever geometry a kinematic solution is developed in this work which relies on: (1.a) The mapping of the compliant mechanism to an equivalent one based on kinematic pairs. (1.b) A decomposition of the equivalent mechanism in Assur Groups by using partitions of the equivalent mechanism, which also produces as a bi-product the formation law of the parallel mechanism. (1.c) A calculation of the kinematic solution of the individual Assur-equivalent mechanisms, possible since the compliant zones accept closed solutions. (1.d) An integration of the closed kinematic solutions by using the formation law of the mechanism. (2) For general compliance mechanisms we present a Design of Computer Experiments (DOCE) formulation which is able to produce an invertible closed force-deformation model suitable for real-time control applications.
Regarding aspect (ii) above, we advance the known methodologies for kinematic pair-based parallel planar mechanisms by implementing a Divide-and-Conquer approach for the planning of the mechanism poses that are to be performed in order to apply Kinematic Identification algorithms. For the symmetric subclass, we present an algorithm which exploits the symmetrical dihedral groups present, in order to mirror already calculated pose plannings.