Design, simulation and testing of an isotropic compliant mechanism

Abstract In this paper, the concept of isotropic compliance is extended to the field of compliant mechanisms. Starting from the design of a rigid-body mechanism, a planar compliant system is determined by applying the rigid-body replacement method. The static behaviour of the isotropic compliant mechanism is validated by finite element simulations and experimental tests. The extension of the proposed method to the Euclidean Space E(3) is discussed.