Design of a new R-P compliant joint

Compliant joints can functionally act as connectors as the traditional rigid joints in compliant mechanisms. A new compliant joint that composed of revolute together with prismatic is proposed in this paper. Closed form equations for describing the stiffness and stress characteristics are derived based on the Castigliano's displacement theorem. Two comparisons that made with two common flexure hinges (corner-filleted flexure hinges and circular flexure hinges) indicate that the new joint is more flexible and produces low stress concentrations than circular and corner-filleted flexures in terms of being a revolute joint. In addition, the proposed joint can implement axial translational motion due to decreasing axial stiffness. These predictions are confirmed by finite element simulations.