SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a framework for a unified Computer Aided Engineering software for the design of systems that obtain their functionality through material compliance. The first element required in this software is an interface that defines problem specifications such as desired motion and forcing functions, available package space, manufacturing limitations, material strength, and fatigue properties. The second element is an engine that sorts through feasible candidate solutions to find the best-suited form. The final element is an engine that iterates subtle candidate-solution details to identify tradeoffs between costs, manufacturing, and function. While commercially available design software can assist users in evaluating designs, they lack the ability to tackle optimal design of compliant mechanical solutions. Though the proprietary algorithms necessary for full-service compliant design software exist, they have yet to be woven into a common environment that can be accessed by a "non-expert" user. It is envisioned that such a generic, easy-to-use, commercial software would proliferate compliant solutions in the marketplace. This would promote an increase in domestic production as labor-intensive "classical" mechanisms are replaced with compliant ones.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the proliferation of compliant mechanical solutions enabled to the global marketplace. Single-piece compliant mechanisms are mechanical systems that deform significantly under external load to perform a motion or forcing task. As a result of the ?one-piece? construction, goods can be manufactured using techniques that require no assembly. This attribute is especially of interest to domestic manufacturing, where jobs are otherwise shipped overseas because of labor intensive designs. In other words, shipping costs and value lost in supply chain delays and inventories cannot be offset when labor is minimized. As an example of the simplest class of compliant mechanisms, flip-top bottles are commonly designed with motion localized in a "living hinge". While they provide a low-cost motion function using unsophisticated design and manufacturing methods, their overall life is limited. In contrast, mechanisms with "distributed compliance" enable more demanding and complex motion functions as they meet demanding fatigue requirements. These mechanisms can serve applications in every sector of the economy, from consumer products to aviation. The motive of this proposal is to develop a CAE environment to serve compliant design, and in turn, promote design practices that favor "point of use" (i.e. domestic) manufacturing.

The broader impact/ commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is in revolutionizing the current mechanical system design practice across multiple industry sectors. Rather than using multiple rigid parts to create a mechanical system, our compliant design method, inspired by designs in nature, exploits material elasticity to create one-piece compliant systems or joint-less mechanisms. Our compliant design software will provide designers with a powerful tool to create products with dramatic reductions in part count, thereby reducing manufacturing cost ( at times eliminating assembly operations altogether), enhancing reliability and precision in ways that could not be achieved through conventional design methods. By replacing assembly-intensive products with compliant designs that have substantially lower assembly burden, manufacturing in the U.S. could be more competitive. For example, our compliant wiper has 75% fewer parts, weighs 50% less, and costs 60% less to manufacture in Detroit compared to conventional multi-piece wiper that is made in China. Thus, technically skilled machine operators producing one-piece designs would create value locally, without the burden of shipping costs and delays, to tip business equation away from offshoring. Thus, broad adoption of compliant design as enabled by our software will lead to more "Made-in-USA" products. This project seeks to develop a framework for Integrated Computer Aided Engineering software for compliant designs. While commercially available design software can assist users in evaluating conventional mechanisms with rigid links and joints, there is no readily available software tool on the market to create (synthesize) and optimize the design of compliant mechanical solutions. Compliant design synthesis algorithms seen in existing research literature often require specialized knowledge that "non-­expert" users might not have, and the algorithms are often not robust enough to consistently create feasible designs. In Phase I, we laid the theoretical and the computational foundation needed to develop a unified compliant design framework. Starting with functional design specifications such as desired motion output(s), and input actuator(s), the algorithms will (a) determine an optimum topology (i.e., how material should be distributed within a prescribed 2D or 3D space), and (b) optimize the size, shape and geometry to meet performance requirements such as fatigue life (stress constraints), manufacturing constraints and dynamic response. In the proposed Phase II effort, we will refine the user-­interface and extend the functionalities to integrate all key elements into a field-­ready commercial package that enables both expert and non-­expert designers to create compliant design solutions.