Comparison of Several Compliant Variable-Stiffness Mechanism Designs for Industrial Applications

Abstract Integration of variable-stiffness properties into robotic actuation systems has become a topic of interest in recent decades. Potential advantages include the ability to tailor dynamic behavior of manipulators and customize their interactions with the environment. In this paper, we leverage concepts from compliant mechanisms to develop several candidate mechanisms for integrating variable-stiffness behavior into robotic end effectors, and compare and contrast their relative merits.