Collaborative Research: Constraint-based Compliant Mechanism Design using Virtual Reality as a Design Interface

这个合作研究项目的目标是使爱荷华州州立大学和马萨诸塞州理工学院的研究人员可以通过使用虚拟现实来研究如何改进柔顺机构的设计和制造。与传统的刚性连杆机构不同，柔顺机构通过机构构件的柔顺和变形来实现运动引导。 柔顺机构的设计目前通过两个截然不同的研究团体的工作进行：机构设计团体，其设计基于基本设计参数的数值模拟和优化，例如拓扑合成，以及精密机械设计团体，其中设计工程师在很大程度上依赖于基于约束的方法，这些方法严重依赖于设计师的经验。 虚拟现实将用于提供一个三维沉浸式设计环境，在该环境中，柔顺机构设计可以使用数学严谨性以及设计师对机构力学的直观理解来实现，以设计三维柔顺机构。这项工作将改变学生，科学家和工程师思考，概念化和工程精密仪器，MEMS，NEMS，柔性机器人和低成本机构的消费产品，通过建立一个工程框架，设计基于约束的柔性机构设计理论和虚拟现实。 虚拟现实技术与强大而合理的基于约束的设计方法相结合，将提供一个自然的三维设计环境，工程师可以快速探索设计空间，生成基于约束的设计概念（拓扑），评估概念并执行详细设计。 由此产生的设计框架将允许更广泛的工程师群体设计复杂的顺应机制，为他们在寻找关键问题的设计解决方案时提供新的选择，从而为制造和产品设计提供新颖的机制解决方案。

This objective of this collaborative research project is so that researchers at Iowa State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology can look at ways to improve the design and manufacturing of compliant mechanisms through the use of virtual reality. Unlike the traditional rigid-link mechanisms, compliant mechanisms achieve motion guidance via the compliance and deformation of the mechanism's members. Design of compliant mechanisms currently occurs through the work of two distinctly different research communities: the mechanism design community, which bases designs on numerical simulation and optimization, e.g. topology synthesis, of basic design parameters, and the precision machine design community, where design engineers rely largely upon constraint-based methods that are heavily dependant upon the experience of the designer. Virtual reality will be used to provide a three-dimensional immersive design environment where compliant mechanism design can be achieved using mathematical rigor coupled with a designer's intuitive understanding of mechanism mechanics to design three-dimensional compliant mechanisms.This work will change the way students, scientists, and engineers think about, conceptualize, and engineer compliant mechanisms for precision instruments, MEMS, NEMS, compliant robotics and low-cost mechanisms for consumer products, by establishing an engineering framework for design of compliant mechanisms based on constraint-based compliant mechanism design theory and virtual reality. Virtual reality, combined with powerful and rational constraint-based design methods, will provide a natural three-dimensional design environment where engineers can rapidly explore the design space to generate constraint-based design concepts (topology), evaluate the concepts and perform detailed design. The resulting design framework will allow a broader group of engineers to design complex compliant mechanisms, giving them new options to draw upon when searching for design solutions to critical problems, resulting in novel mechanism solutions for manufacturing and product design.