CAREER: Compliant Mechanisms

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9624574 Howell This award provides resources to support research and teaching in the area of compliant mechanisms. Compliant mechanisms gain some or all of their motion from the deflection of flexible members rather than from traditional joints only. In the past, compliant mechanisms have been limited to simple applications due to difficulties associated with their analysis. This research focuses on the development of methodologies to simplify compliant mechanism analysis and design. The pseudo-rigid-body model concept will be developed for analysis of these non-linear systems, and will be used to unify compliant mechanism and rigid-body mechanism theories. New and recent research results will be integrated into the curriculum in the form of a new course on compliant mechanisms for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students. Compliant-mechanism theory offers a new way of solving many mechanical-motion problems. Advantages of compliant mechanisms include decreased manufacturing and assembly time and decreased cost due to reductions in part count. Other advantages include reductions in weight, vibration, noise, and wear. Compliant mechanisms also simplify the design of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and allow them to be constructed using methods similar to those used to fabricate integrated circuits. The research will enable the design of mechanisms that were previously considered unlikely, if not impossible, applications of compliant mechanisms.