GUIDING ACCURACY OF THE WATT COMPLIANT COGNATE MECHANISMS

In kinematics, cognate linkages are those that ensure the same input-output relationship or coupler curve geometry, while being dimensionally dissimilar. Compliant mechanisms gain some or all of their mobility from the relative flexibility of their joints rather than from the rigid-body joints only, which is the case with classical mechanisms. In this paper the guiding accuracy of the compliant cognate Watt four-bar linkages has been presented. The compliant cognate mechanisms have been developed as the counterparts of the rigid-body Watt mechanism, where the coupler point can be guided on an approximate rectilinear path. The guiding accuracy of the "coupler" point on the path segment (minimal deviation between exact rectilinear and realized path) has been calculated for the new-designed compliant mechanisms