Bistable Buckled Beam: Modeling of Actuating Force and Experimental Validations

Compliant bistable mechanisms are a class of mechanical systems that benefit from both compliance, allowing easy manufacturing on a small scale, and bistability, which provides two passive and stable positions. These properties make them first-class candidates not only for microswitches but also several other robotic appliances. This paper investigates the actuation of a simple bistable mechanism, the bistable buckled beam. It is pointed out that the position of the actuation has a significant impact on the behavior of the system. A new model is proposed and discussed, with experimental validations to compare central and offset loading, highlighting the strengths of each. [DOI: 10.1115/1.3179003]