Abstract: Through the development in the past 20 years, the compliant mechanism has become an important branch of modern mechanisms and is widely applied in such fields as precision engineering and robotics. Although a series of design methods and theories of compliant mechanism have emerged, its design problem is still facing challenge. A comprehensive overview of design methods is provided for compliant mechanisms used for precision applications, usually called flexure mechanisms. Several main approaches to analysis and design of flexure mechanisms, including pseudo-rigid-body model, structural matrix model, constraint-based design, freedom and constraint topology synthesis based on screw theory, structural optimization, as well as building block approach, are summarized and compared. The state-of-arts of flexure mechanisms are covered according to the general design process for flexure mechanism, i.e. flexure element modeling, configuration synthesis, mechanism analysis and modeling, size synthesis and optimization. Prospects to the development of flexure mechanism design theory are made.

Key words: Compliant mechanism, Configuration synthesis, Design method, Flexure hinge, Precision engineering, Size synthesis