Design of a Linear Bistable Compliant Crank-Slider Mechanism

This paper presents a new model for a linear bistable compliant mechanism and design guidelines for its use. The mechanism is based on the crank-slider mechanism. This model takes into account the first mode of buckling and postbuckling behavior of a compliant segment to describe the mechanism's bistable behavior. The kinetic and kinematic equations, derived from the pseudo-rigid-body model (PRBM), were solved numerically and are represented in plots. This representation allows the generation of step-by-step design guidelines. The design parameters consist of maximum desired deflection, material selection, safety factor, compliant segments' widths, maximum force required for actuator selection, and maximum footprint (i.e., the maximum rectangular area that the mechanism can fit inside of and move freely without interfering with other components). Because different applications may have different input requirements, this paper describes two different design approaches with different parameters subsets as inputs. The linear bistable compliant crank-slider mechanism (LBCCSM) can be used in the shape-morphing space-frame (SMSF) as potential application. The frame's initial shape is constructed from a single-layer grid of flexures, rigid links, and LBCCSMs. The grid is bent into the space-frame's initial cylindrical shape, which can morph because of the inclusion of LBCCSMs in its structure.