Optimal Design of Remote Center Compliance Devices of Rotational Symmetry

Remote Center Compliance (RCC) structure is a passive device for assembly. For round peg-in-hole insertion, the initial misalignments have the same possibility to occur at arbitrary direction and the applied load is concentrated on a radial plane. RCC with rotational symmetry property therefore is a desired design. How to design structures with this property is discussed and it is proved that circular periodic structures satisfy the property. The elastic part of RCC is formulated as a compliant mechanism and a systematic design methodology is proposed based on structural optimization. A smooth optimal design with distributed compliance is achieved and simulated to illustrate the feasibility and validity. The proposed method is expected to be used to design novel device for assembling fragile plastic parts which is a challenge in 3C industry.