Coupled design of selectively compliant mechanisms and actuators

主动机械系统由被动机械系统(机构)和致动器系统组成。本提案侧重于一种特殊情况，即机械系统是一种顺应机制。柔顺机构执行传统机构的功能，但原则上，它们没有任何活动部件(轴承、导轨或关节)。相反，它们的功能依赖于柔性区域的目标变形。通常，柔顺系统是基于优化任务设计的。有许多因素表明，将这种方法推广到伴随的执行机构系统的设计中是有好处的：1)柔顺系统的柔性区域只能在有限的范围内承受集中力。在设计执行器系统时，必须分析局部变形或不需要的变形部件的激励，这只能在正式优化范围内以合理的费用执行。2)兼容系统提供(在某些情况下甚至需要)分布式激活的选项。分布式执行器系统的设计过于复杂，如果没有正式的优化程序，就无法成功地进行。3)通过耦合机构和执行器系统的设计可以发挥协同效应。特别是，将执行器的承载特性集成到机械设计中是可能的(特别是使用固态执行器)。尽管文献中记录了许多用于执行器系统优化的方法，但它们并不是非常适合上述综合优化执行器和柔顺机构的目标。在本项目的帮助下，将以主动顺应系统的基于优化的设计方法的形式为问题的解决作出贡献。

Active mechanical systems consist of a passive mechanical system (mechanism) and an actuator system. This proposal focuses on a special case scenario, whereby the mechanical system is a compliant mechanism. Compliant mechanisms perform the function of conventional mechanisms but in principle, they do not have any movable components (bearings, guides or joints). Instead, their functions rely on the targeted deformation of flexible regions.As a rule, compliant systems are designed on the basis of an optimization task. There are numerous factors that show the benefits of extending this kind of methodology to the design of the accompanying actuator system:1) The flexible regions of compliant systems are only capable of bearing concentrated forces to a limited extent. An analysis of local deformations or of the excitation of undesired deformation components must be performed when designing the actuator system, which can be only performed at reasonable expenses within the scope of a formal optimization.2) Compliant systems offer (and in some cases even require) the option of distributed activation. The design of a distributed actuator system is too complex to be undertaken successfully without the help of a formal optimization procedure.3) Synergies can be exploited by coupling the designs of mechanism and actuator system. In particular, it is possible to integrate the load-bearing properties of the actuators into the mechanical design (especially with solid state actuators).Although numerous approaches for the optimization of actuator systems have been documented in the literature, they are not very suitable for the above mentioned objective of an integrated optimization of actuator and compliant mechanism. With the help of the present project, a contribution to the solution of the problem is to be made in the form of an optimization-based design method for active compliant systems.