Overview and Kinetostatic Characterization of Compliant Shell Mechanism Building Blocks

Compliant shell mechanisms utilize thin-walled structures to achieve motion and force generation. Shell mechanisms, because of their thin-walled nature and spatial geometry, are building blocks for spatial mechanism applications. In spatial compliant mechanism design, the ratio of compliance is the representation of the kinetostatics involved. Using shell mechanisms in concept design, however, can prove difficult without a uniform characterization method. In this article, we make use of compliance ellipsoids to achieve characterization of the ratio of compliance for shell mechanisms. Ten promising shells are presented with the kinetostatic characteristics, combined with a uniform method of determining the kinetostatic characteristics for other unknown shells. Finally, we show how shells are indeed a valid alternative in the spatial mechanism design, compared to conventional flexure mechanisms.