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Design and Modeling of a Bistable Spherical Compliant Micromechanism

Compliant bistable mechanisms are mechanisms that have two stable equilibrium positions within their range of motion. Their bistability is mainly due to the elasticity of their members. This thesis introduces a new type of bistable micromechanisms, the Bistable, Spherical, Compliant, four-bar Micromechanism (BSCM). Theory to predict bistable positions and configurations is also developed. Bistabilty was demonstrated through testing done on micro-prototypes. Compared to the mathematical model of the BSCM, Finite element models of the BSCM indicated important qualitative differences in the mechanism's stability behavior and its input-angle-input torque relation. The BSCM has many valuable features, such as: Two stable positions that require power only when moving from one stable position to the other, accurate and repeatable out-of-plane motion with resistance to small perturbations. The BSCM may be useful in several applications such as active Braille systems and Digital Light Processing (DLP) chips.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:USF/oai:scholarcommons.usf.edu:etd-1667
Date07 November 2007
CreatorsChoueifati, Joseph Georges
PublisherScholar Commons
Source SetsUniversity of South Flordia
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceGraduate Theses and Dissertations
Rightsdefault

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