Compliant Mechanism Design

Catalog description

Compliant mechanisms are devices that exploit mechanical compliance to obtain motion. These devices are frequently seen in organisms and natural systems. In this course, students will gain compliant mechanism design skills transferable to virtually all mechanical design applications. Students will develop the ability to assess design challenges and their compatibility with compliant mechanisms and will improve their mechanical design intuition by understanding the relationships between flexibility, strength, displacement, and force. Students draw on these principles as they study current research literature, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies, predominantly the pseudo-rigid-body model, to synthesize new knowledge in the field of compliant mechanisms. Students grow their abilities to expand the frontiers of compliant mechanism research as they create new design methods. Students will gain experience in the emerging field of origami-based design. Students' capacity to produce creative scholarly products will be reinforced in compliant mechanism design projects, where students will conceptualize, model, prototype, test, and convey compliant mechanism theories and designs.