Study of the degrees of freedom equations in the compliant mechanism design

Compliant mechanisms gain some or all their motion from the deflections of flexible members. Preliminary studies demonstrated some advantages over their rigid-body counterparts: versatility, ease of manufacturing, ergonomics, and overload protection, better performance and reliability for their flexible nature. Their kinematic approach provides the synthesis of a conventional rigid mechanism. The degrees of freedom concept is used to help obtain a preliminary design which may then be optimized, and defines a flexure number concept for characterizing flexible-link mechanism. The nomenclature, classification and abstraction for the components involved in compliant mechanism design are shown. The paper describes the evolution of fundamental well-known degrees of freedom equations, and their comparison is discussed. Practical example applications of different formulas are presented, and the advantages and disadvantages are debated according to the conception, capacity and control of new compliant mechanisms