OPTIMAL-DESIGN OF FLEXIBLE MECHANISMS USING A PARAMETRIC APPROACH

In this paper, an effort to develop a more generic design procedure for flexible mechanisms is initiated. Based on a parametric study, the important parameters which affect the stress, displacement, and natural frequency can be closely related. An approach using these relations to obtain the optimal design of flexible mechanisms subject to stress, displacement and natural frequency constraints is presented. Optimality conditions are derived to moderate the conflicting constraints, and a recursion approach is developed to show the application of this study. Two examples using this approach to design flexible mechanisms are presented to demonstrate the idea.