Low cost linear actuator using a complaint mechanism by pedrosacramento

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

This is the first prototype of a servo-driven low-cost linear actuation mechanism that can offset up to 20mm.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lewMNqDe720
This project has some design goals:
a) Reduced part count
b) Simple to print and assemble
c) Durable when 3D printed with PLA
To achieve this goal my strategy was:
a) Using a compliant mechanism
b) The assembly process doesn't involve sanding, removing supports or any other time consuming task
c) I typically print everything using PLA. Given that 3d printed PLA gears tend to wear very easily, this design is cable driven, which will hopefully improve its durability. Further investigation is necessary to test this hypothesis.
To assemble the actuator you will need:
2 x M3x5mm screws
2 x M3x10mm screws
2 x M3 washers
1 MG995 metal nut (I plan to remove this requirement for the next design iteration)
1 MG995 servo
Acknowledgment
The compliant mechanism is a remix of the work of Reinier Kuppens "Compliant Mechanisms That Use Static Balancing to Achieve Dramatically Different States of Stiffness" (https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4049438)