Variable Stiffness Design and Analysis of Flexure Hinge Based on ID-LEJ

Abstract In recent years, compliant mechanisms have attracted more and more attention of scholars at home and abroad, and achieved rapid development. The introduction of flexible variable stiffness design in flexible mechanism can not only improve the safety of human-computer interaction, but also improve the adaptability of the machine. Because the ID-LEJ (Inside-Deployed Lamina Emergent Joint) is a kind of LEMs and has very good bending performance. In this paper, the rotary ID-LEJ flexure hinge is proposed based on ID-LEJ hinge, to maximize the bending capacity of the hinge. In order to realize variable stiffness of rotary ID-LEJ, four sliders are arranged in the rotary ID-LEJ to change the stiffness of the hinge. The variable stiffness of the hinge is analyzed by Equivalent system and Finite element analysis. When the slider is symmetrically divided (yl1=yl2=yr1=yr2) the bending equivalent constant of the variable stiffness hinge varies continuously from 30.8 n · mm / rad ∼ 38.2n · mm / rad. And when the slider is asymmetrically distributed (yl1=yl2≠yr1=yr2) The bending equivalent constant of the variable stiffness hinge varies continuously from 30.8n · mm / rad to 34.2 · mm / rad. The results show that the variable stiffness performance is very flexible and stable.