Design and analysis of corrugated flexure-based lamina emergent spatial joints for symmetrical compliant kaleidocycles

Abstract Compliant kaleidocycles exhibit continuous rotation and multistability. They have strong application prospects in the exploration of new spatial mechanisms. However, limited by the spatial structure of the kaleidocycle units, the design of compact and miniaturized kaleidocycles remains challenging. In this study, a corrugated flexure-based lamina emergent spatial (CF-LES) joint is introduced for the design and analysis of symmetrical compliant kaleidocycles. First, the rotational compliance ratios are analyzed to set the degrees of freedom (DOFs) and the degrees of constraint (DOCs) of the CF-LES joint. Second, the parameters of the proposed joint are optimized for the compliant kaleidocycles. Third, the mechanical properties of the kaleidocycles based on the optimization result are evaluated by finite element analysis (FEA) and experiments. Finally, the potential applications of this mechanism are discussed, and a prototype is processed to determine the miniaturization capability of CF-LES joint-based symmetrical compliant kaleidocycles.