Synthesis of a compliant mechanism for a walking leg

Compliant mechanisms have made an enormous contribution in various fields such as biomedical, mechanical, electronics... Several theoretical and practical methods have been conceived to analyze and design these compliant mechanisms, which gain most of their motion from the deflection of its flexible members rather than from movable joints. Traditional rigid-body mechanisms have a number of components to apply their functions. Consequently, they face problems such as wear, backlash, and increase in part-count, weight, assembly cost and time, as well as regular maintenance. By reducing these problems increased mechanism performance and cost reduction can be achieved. Recently, many familiar examples of compliant mechanisms have been designed and widely used in various fields such as automotive industry, aerospace industry, MEMS, medical devices, robotic arms, adaptive structures, components in transportation, hand-held tools, etc. However, the challenge here is to combine and choose wisely the optimal compliant joint for each requirement. Two procedures will be studied in this work, one following a kinematics-based approach and the other following a more structural optimization based. The objective of the current work is to synthesise an optimal compliant mechanism for a walking motion leg, which should be contained on a 2D plane for easier manufacturin