SBIR Phase II: Made in USA-Profitably: An Integrated Design Tool for Eliminating Assembly

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于彻底改变了目前跨多个行业的机械系统设计实践。我们的合规设计方法不是使用多个刚性部件来创建机械系统，而是受自然界中的设计启发，利用材料弹性来创建一体式合规系统或无关节机构。我们的兼容设计软件将为设计人员提供一个强大的工具，以大幅减少部件数量，从而降低制造成本(有时完全消除组装操作)，以传统设计方法无法实现的方式提高可靠性和精度。通过用组装负担大大降低的合规设计取代组装密集型产品，美国的制造业可能会更具竞争力。例如，与中国生产的传统多件式雨刷相比，我们的合规雨刷的零部件减少了75%，重量减轻了50%，在底特律的制造成本降低了60%。因此，技术熟练的机器操作员生产一体式设计将在本地创造价值，而不会产生运输成本和延误的负担，从而使业务平衡远离离岸。因此，由我们的软件实现的合规设计的广泛采用将导致更多的“美国制造”产品。本项目旨在开发一个用于合规设计的集成计算机辅助工程软件的框架。虽然商用设计软件可以帮助用户评估具有刚性连杆和关节的传统机构，但市场上还没有现成的软件工具来创建(合成)和优化符合要求的机械解决方案的设计。在现有研究文献中看到的合规设计综合算法通常需要“非专家”用户可能不具备的专业知识，并且算法往往不够健壮，无法始终如一地创建可行的设计。在第一阶段，我们奠定了开发统一的合规设计框架所需的理论和计算基础。从期望运动输出(S)和输入执行器(S)等功能设计规范开始，算法将(A)确定最佳拓扑(即材料应如何在规定的2D或3D空间内分布)，以及(B)优化尺寸、形状和几何形状，以满足诸如疲劳寿命(应力约束)、制造约束和动态响应等性能要求。在拟议的第二阶段工作中，我们将改进用户界面并扩展功能，以将所有关键元素整合到一个可供现场使用的商业包中，使专家和非专家设计师能够创建合规的设计解决方案。

The broader impact/ commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is in revolutionizing the current mechanical system design practice across multiple industry sectors. Rather than using multiple rigid parts to create a mechanical system, our compliant design method, inspired by designs in nature, exploits material elasticity to create one-piece compliant systems or joint-less mechanisms. Our compliant design software will provide designers with a powerful tool to create products with dramatic reductions in part count, thereby reducing manufacturing cost ( at times eliminating assembly operations altogether), enhancing reliability and precision in ways that could not be achieved through conventional design methods. By replacing assembly-intensive products with compliant designs that have substantially lower assembly burden, manufacturing in the U.S. could be more competitive. For example, our compliant wiper has 75% fewer parts, weighs 50% less, and costs 60% less to manufacture in Detroit compared to conventional multi-piece wiper that is made in China. Thus, technically skilled machine operators producing one-piece designs would create value locally, without the burden of shipping costs and delays, to tip business equation away from offshoring. Thus, broad adoption of compliant design as enabled by our software will lead to more "Made-in-USA" products.This project seeks to develop a framework for Integrated Computer Aided Engineering software for compliant designs. While commercially available design software can assist users in evaluating conventional mechanisms with rigid links and joints, there is no readily available software tool on the market to create (synthesize) and optimize the design of compliant mechanical solutions. Compliant design synthesis algorithms seen in existing research literature often require specialized knowledge that "non-­expert" users might not have, and the algorithms are often not robust enough to consistently create feasible designs. In Phase I, we laid the theoretical and the computational foundation needed to develop a unified compliant design framework. Starting with functional design specifications such as desired motion output(s), and input actuator(s), the algorithms will (a) determine an optimum topology (i.e., how material should be distributed within a prescribed 2D or 3D space), and (b) optimize the size, shape and geometry to meet performance requirements such as fatigue life (stress constraints), manufacturing constraints and dynamic response. In the proposed Phase II effort, we will refine the user-­interface and extend the functionalities to integrate all key elements into a field-­ready commercial package that enables both expert and non-­expert designers to create compliant design solutions.