MATLAB Toolbox for Design and Motion Analysis of Compliant Mechanisms and Soft Robots

Abstract

Abstract Despite the advantages and superiorities of compliant mechanisms and soft robots over rigid mechanisms, optimizing the stiffness of flexible links and dynamic properties of complex and high mobility designs is increasingly challenging. Additionally, the largest challenge in the design and modeling of such systems is understanding the deformation of the two bodies when connected along with their interaction in complex cases such as large deflecting buckling beams, especially for people who are new in the area. There exist several methods and techniques for obtaining kinematic relations as pseudo rigid body modeling (PRBM), first and second kind of Elliptica theory, discrete beam element method for simple geometries of compliant mechanisms, and nonlinear dynamical modeling of soft robots assuming using constant curvature spatial curves, and also machine learning. To address this issue, we present the user-friendly and open-access MATLAB Toolbox for the design and motion analysis of compliant mechanisms and soft robots. The developed toolbox serves as a platform to visualize the deformation of compliant joints and compliant beams (Module 1), visualize the displacement of various compliant mechanisms (Module 2), design simple and complex compliant mechanisms using the hinges and beams, and design and motion analysis of soft robots (Module 3).