Compliant, bi-stable mechanisms with multiple stiffnesses through controlled spring buckling

Brian LaFerriere; Carson E. Schlect; John P. Swensen

ICRA 2017poster0 citations

Compliant, bi-stable mechanisms with multiple stiffnesses through controlled spring buckling

Brian LaFerriere, Carson E. Schlect, John P. Swensen

Abstract

The ability to change stiffness is a capability exhibited through the animal kingdom, with many recent advances in tunable stiffness in the area of robotics. In this paper, we propose a mechanism design that provides the ability to make modular subcomponents with tunable stiffness by creating a bi-stable mechanism that exhibits different stiffnesses in each of the stable configurations. The design is based on controlled buckling of two linear springs in series and allows design-time control over the stiffnesses, equilibrium points, and energy required to transition between the stable configurations.

BibTeX

@inproceedings{icra2017_compliantbistabl,
  title = {Compliant, bi-stable mechanisms with multiple stiffnesses through controlled spring buckling},
  author = {Brian LaFerriere and Carson E. Schlect and John P. Swensen},
  booktitle = {ICRA 2017},
  year = {2017}
}