Development Of Compliant Mechanism Design Platform Based On The Stiffness Matrix Method

With the rapid development in the fields of bioengineering, micro-electro mechanical system and robot, compliant mechanism was applied more and more extensively. However, the lack of technical tools for compliant mechanism design had resulted in large work loading and long design cycle, which hinders its further development and applications. Based on the pseudo-rigid-body and stiffness matrix method, these two advanced methods was imported into the design of compliant mechanism.Then AutoCAD software was chosen as the support software and a compliant mechanism design platform, which was integrated with modeling, analysis and optimization, was developed in Visual Studio 2010 environment.The platform consisted of component library, unit model, optimization design and data management, which provided a comprehensive and accurate reference data for the production of compliant mechanism. The main work in this paper was:First, utilizing the modeling-related API interfaces provided by AutoCAD, a compliant mechanism template library was built with the parametric technology. By means of interface technology, the location information would be extracted while pseudo-rigid-body model was established. Meanwhile, the graphics information and location information was stored in the database. This module was in the data input stage and prepared for calculating the stiffness matrix.Secondly, the pseudo-rigid model of compliant mechanism was divided into a plurality of discrete member unit and its corresponding data model was created by adopting object-oriented thinking. In this way, the generation of stiffness matrix and load column vector and optimization of the design process was transformed into operating data model. This module was in the data processing stage and the processor of platform.Then, the data management module was set up. With the ADO.NET technology and AutoCAD API interfaces, graphical information in the AutoCAD application was associated with data in Access database to store, display and modify vital data during the compliant mechanism design. Except for serving other three functional parts, this module managed three kinds of data generated at different stages, and the final calculation results are stored to provide reference data for the design of compliant mechanism.Finally, based on the compliant mechanism platform, a 3-RRR planar micro-positioning platform was taken to study its performance analysis. Afterwards, the performance analysis and static mechanical ANSYS simulation results were compared to verify the accuracy of theoretical model and validity of the application. And then aimed with expanding stage’s moving space, the micro-positioning platform was optimized, which was of much value for the design of micro-positioning stage.