Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:103–112
DOI 10.1007/s00170-015-7801-z
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A modified post-processing technique to design a compliant based
microgripper with a plunger using topological optimization
R. Bharanidaran 1 & T. Ramesh 2
Received: 27 March 2015 / Accepted: 2 September 2015 / Published online: 15 September 2015
# Springer-Verlag London 2015
Abstract The precision of microobject manipulation is pre-
dominantly based on the appropriate design of micromanipu-
lation devices such as microgrippers. A compliant
mechanism-based microgripper is an appropriate choice to
achieve a highly precise and controlled motion. This research
article proposes a refined technique to design a compliant-
based microgripper with a plunger. The topological optimiza-
tion technique has been adopted in this research work to de-
velop the conceptual design of the mechanism. Flexure hinges
are introduced in the topologically optimized design to over-
come the senseless regions developed during the optimization
process which is highly complicated to manufacture. Various
flexure hinge contours such as rectangular, circular, and ellip-
tical are introduced in the conceptual design domain, and their
effects are investigated. Various parameters of flexure hinges
are considered; the stress, the displacements, and the strain
energy stored in the mechanism are studied through finite
element analysis (FEA). In addition to FEA, experimental
verification of the design was also performed. Both results
are convincing about the structural performance of the
microgripper design. In general, microdevices possess higher
surface forces than volumetric forces; hence, this design is
introduced with a plunger segment which is used to push the
microobject for an active release during micromanipulation.
* R. Bharanidaran
bharanidaran123@gmail.com
T. Ramesh
tramesh@nitt.edu
1
School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, Vellore Institute of
Technology, Vellore, India
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of
Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India
Keywords Compliant mechanism . Microgripper . Plunger .
Topology optimization . Flexure hinges . Surface forces
1 Introduction
Recent developments in precision industries are demanding
for highly controlled and precision movements of manipulat-
ing devices. A microgripper is a fundamental component in
the micromanipulation of minute objects [1]. Hence, the de-
sign and development of a microgripper have drawn more
attention in micromanipulation researches. Microgripper de-
sign should include the physical nature of the micro-sized
objects to be handled such as irregular shapes, fragile-
natured biological cells, and bacteria [2], and changes in the
physics of micro-sized components [3]. Therefore, the design
of gripping devices and its mechanism at the micro level have
attracted many researchers. Incorporating the conventional
joints in the mechanism of a microgripper leads to inaccuracy
due to backlash, wear, manufacturing error, assembly error,
and friction between the assembled parts. Drawbacks found
in the conventional joints at precision and micro-level motion
suggests the designer to develop an alternate design method-
ology such as a monolithic compliant mechanism. A compli-
ant mechanism-based design has a slender region called flex-
ure hinge which allows limited rotation between two rigid
parts by bending. The control over precision motion of
microgripper design extremely depends on the kind of flex-
ures and their design [4]. The monolithic compliant mecha-
nism design has been developed by adopting various ap-
proaches such as mechanism synthesis [5, 6], pseudo-rigid
body model [7], optimization technique [8], inverse methods
[9], and intuitive method [10]. Among the various methods
highlighted in this research paper, optimization technique has
proven that it is more general and efficient.
104
Topological optimization is a mathematical approach
of developing a conceptual design of compliant mech-
anism [11]. It is solved effectively by using Solid Iso-
tropic Material with Penalization (SIMP). Bendsoe and
Sigmund [8] implemented SIMP or power law interpo-
lation approach alternate to a homogenization-based
method. In this technique, the material property is as-
sumed as constant in all the elements of the discretized
initial design domain. Element relative density is as-
sumed as a variable and raised to some power times.
The heuristic optimization algorithm has been used to
optimize the relative density of the element based on
the objectives and constraints considered. The output of
the topologically optimized mechanism design provides
a location of flexure hinges, and these locations are
spotted as senseless regions. Senseless regions are
identified as the regions which are highly impossible
to manufacture. These regions are replaced by means
of flexure hinges during the post-processing stage [12].
Investigations on the effect of flexure hinge parameters
of a microgripper design are an important area where
the researchers are identifying the optimum hinge pa-
rameters [13]. Flexure hinges are differentiated majorly
through its contours such as rectangular or leaf, circu-
lar, elliptical, etc. [4]. These various contour profiles
are contributing uniqueness in the structural behavior
of the compliant mechanism. During handling of
microobjects, releasing is more complicated than grasp-
ing it. This is due to the fact that surface forces such
as surface tension, van der Waals forces, and electro-
static forces in microobjects are significantly greater
than volumetric forces like gravitational force [14]. In
recent years, various approaches have been proposed to
ov erc ome the su rfa ce f orc es de ve lope d in th e
microobjects during handling. Appropriate selection of
microgripper geometry and materials can reduce adhe-
sion between the gripper and the object [14]. van der
Waals forces can be reduced by providing rough sur-
faces in the fingertip of the gripper or coating with
proper materials [15]. Recently, a technique known as
active release has been used effectively to release the
microobject with minimal sticking phenomenon be-
tween the gripper finger and the microobject [16, 17].
The vibration-based dynamic method is another method
to overcome the adhesive forces to release the
microobject [18, 19]. A more efficient, accurate, high-
repeatability, and rapid method is to introduce the
plunger in the microgripper to push the object to re-
lease from the fingertip of the microgripper [16, 17].
The design of the plunger should have less contact
surfaces with the microobject. As it is requested to
have a less contact area, the tip of the plunger is de-
signed as curved in nature [20].
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:103–112
In this research work, many design aspects are consid-
ered to design a microgripper with a plunger portion. The
conceptual design of the mechanism is made through to-
pological optimization technique. This conceptual design
is further post-processed to overcome the manufacturing
difficulties by introducing flexure hinges. The optimum
parameter of flexure hinges is selected by comparing their
structural behavior. The structural behaviors of the
microgripper are investigated through the FEM. The de-
formations of microgripper design for the various param-
eters are also verified using experimental techniques. Lat-
er, microgripper jaws and a plunger are designed accord-
ing to the requirements.
2 Design of the microgripper
2.1 Topology optimization
The topology optimization process has been performed by
means of the SIMP approach. In this approach, the mate-
rial properties of the domain are assumed as constant for
each element of the discretized design domain. The opti-
mization variable considered in this research work is the
element relative density. A MATLAB program for topol-
ogy optimization developed by Sigmund et al. [8] is mod-
ified according to the initial design domain and the nec-
essary boundary conditions.
The initial domain is chosen according to the design re-
quirement of the microgripper. Figure 1 shows the initial de-
sign domain; input force f1in is introduced at one end, and
three output forces—f1out, f2out, and f3out—are demanded at
the other end. Forces f2out and f3out will be used to move the
microgripper jaws and the force f1out is required for moving
the plunger. Hence, there are four forces acting on it and cause
four displacements—u1in, u1out, u2out, and u3out—which are
expected in the design domain.
Hence, the output displacement uout is computed as fo1Tu1 +
fo2 u1 −fo3Tu1.
T
Fig. 1 Initial design domain
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:103–112 105

The objective function of the topology optimization prob-

lem is formulated as

Min ðxÞ :

− uout ðxÞ ¼ − f o1 T u1 − f o2 T u1 þ f o3 T u1
N
X  
¼ ðxe Þp −u1oe T k 0 u1e − u1oe T k 0 u1e þ u1oe T k 0 u1e
e¼1

V ðxÞ
Subject to : ≤ f;
V0
: KU ¼ F;

: 0 < xmin ≤ x ≤ 1

U, K, and F Global displacement, stiffness matrix,

and force vectors, respectively
x Design variable
p The penalization power
N Number of elements used to discretize
V and V0 Material volume and design domain
volume, respectively
f Volume fraction
The number of elements (80×60), the percentage of vol-
ume reduction (70 %), and the penalization power (3) are
considered as the inputs for the MATLAB program. After
the execution of 210 iterations, the MATLAB program gener-
ates a graphical solution as shown in Fig. 2, where few pairs of
elements conflict each other about their existence in the
resulting image. This shows that there is no existence of con-
verged results. Hence, this state is assumed as the optimized
shape of the gripping mechanism and is considered as the final
solution.
Fig. 3 Flexure hinge contour: a rectangular contour, b circular contour,
and c elliptical contour
2.2 Design for manufacturing

Manufacturability of the topologically optimized mechanism

senseless regions generated in the design. In this process, the
obtained through MATLAB code is impossible due to the
design domain is discretized into a finite number of elements
during optimization of the element density value which is
assigned as 0 to 1 for the whole element. Hence, the optimized
design has staircase effects. These staircase effects cannot be
uprooted at the optimization stage but can only decrease the

Table 1 Notch joint comparisons: leaf hinge, circular, and elliptical

[26]

Rectangular Circular Elliptical

contour contour contour

Stiffness of flexure 5 pffiffiffi

K∝ at x
3 5
hinges K∝ pt2ffiffiffi
rx K∝
t2 ry
pffiffiffi
Fig. 2 Topologically optimized shape of the mechanism obtained rx
through MATLAB
106 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:103–112

Fig. 4 FE analysis of the

microgripper with rectangular
hinges with 1-mm thickness and
3-mm length. a Post-processed
geometric model; b FE model
with increased number of
elements at the hinge region; c
vector plot of total deformation of
the microgripper; d equivalent
stress (von Mises stress)
distribution; e equivalent strain
(von Mises strain) distribution; f
strain energy distribution; and g
reaction force at the input port
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:103–112 107

effect by increasing the number of elements. But increasing

the number of elements increases the computation time of the
process. Instead, the post-processing can be carried out to
remove the staircase edge.
In addition to the staircase effects, another significant sense-
less region found in the resulted design domain is a node to node
connected region or smaller region with complicated connectiv-
ity. These regions are developed as an indication of the optimi-
zation process and suggest that the introduction of a rotary mo-
tion is required in the mechanism design. Hence, these regions
are to be replaced with pin joints where pure rotary motions are
demanded by the mechanism. In micro-sized components, intro-
duction of pin joints or traditional mechanical joints is a complex
job of the designer [4]. Hence, a flexible member called flexure
hinges is introduced to provide the necessary rotational effect of
pin joints in the mechanism by utilizing the elastic nature of the
material. Selection of an appropriate flexure hinge is an impor-
tant task in the post-processing stage of the design. A more
appropriate method to select a geometrical parameter of flexure
hinges is by analyzing various parameters of flexure hinges
through the finite element method.
The structural behavior of flexure hinges is varied with its
geometrical parameter list below. Generally, flexures are a
straight beam or notches with different contours such as conic
sections [21]; circular, elliptical, parabolic [22], and hyperbolic
contour [22]; v-shaped notches [23]; quadratic rational B’ezier
curves [24]; and polynomial contour [25]. In this research
work, three basic types of hinges such as rectangular, circular,
and elliptical contour-profiled hinges (Fig. 3) are considered.
The following are the geometrical parameters of the flexure
hinges:
b Breadth of the hinges
h Height of hinges
t Thickness of the web
l Length of the web
r Radius of the arc in a circular hinge
rx Minimum radius of the elliptical contour
ry Maximum radius of the elliptical contour
K Stiffness of the flexure hinge
From Table 1, the stiffness of the elliptical hinge contour is
found to be more than that of the rectangular hinge contour
and lesser than that of the circular hinges. Stiffness of the
hinges is proportional to the out of plane thickness linearly.

Table 2 Mechanical
properties of stainless Mechanical properties
steel type 316
Density (kg/mm3) 8.0×10−6
Poisson’s ratio 0.30
Elastic modulus (MPa) 193×103
Fig. 4 (continued)
Yield strength (MPa) 205
108 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:103–112

Fig. 5 a–e Effect web thickness

variation in the flexure hinge 35 5

Equivalent stress (MPa)

region (considered rectangular 30

Reaction force (N)

4
flexure hinges) 25
20 3
15 2
10
1
5
0 0
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Web thickness (mm) Web thickness (mm)

(a) (d)

20.00 15.6
Equivalent strain x104

Deformation x103(mm)
15.4
15.00
(mm/mm)

15.2
10.00 15
14.8
5.00
14.6
0.00 14.4
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Web thickness (mm) Web thickness (mm)

(b) (e)

15.00
Strain Energy x105(mJ)

10.00

5.00

0.00
0 1 2 3
Web thickness (mm)

(c)

Though the flexure hinges are having more advantages in
microcomponents, few limitations must be considered during
the design stage. The range of motion, the amount of axis drift,
the ratio of off-axis stiffness to axial stiffness, and the stress
concentration effects are important criteria dominating the
precision motion of the compliant mechanism [26].
Topologically optimized model boundaries are traced
through AutoCAD software to develop the 2D geometric
model. This developed CAD model as shown in Fig. 4a is
imported into ANSYS workbench to carry out the FE
analysis. Material properties considered for this analysis
are shown in Table 2.
The FE model of the microgripper geometry is generated
with six noded triangular elements as illustrated in Fig. 4b.
The elements at the hinge portions are refined to a finer level.
Actuation load of the microgripper is applied as displacement
(10 μm) at the input port. Static structural analysis is carried
out to find the structural behavior of the microgripper for the
given displacement. Equivalent stress, equivalent strain, de-
formation, strain energy, and reaction forces are calculated
from the FE technique. Figure 4c shows the flexure hinges
act as pin joints through its vector contour plot. Figure 4d–f
shows the distribution of von Mises stress, von Mises strain,
and strain energy in the geometric model where the stresses,
strains, and strain energy are possessing higher magnitudes at
the flexure hinge regions. These higher magnitudes signify
that other than flexure hinges, the geometric regions behave
like a rigid link. The reaction force plot (Fig. 4g) indicates
that the amount of input force required for obtaining the pre-
scribed displacement.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:103–112 109

50 16
45 14

Equivalent stress (MPa)

Strain Energy x105(mJ)

40
12
35
30 10
25 8
20 6
15
4
10
5 2
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Varying web Parameters (mm) Varying web Parameters (mm)

Rectangular Circular Elliptical Rectangular Circular Elliptical

(a) (d)

30.00 4
Equivalent Strain x105 (mm/mm)

3.5
25.00
3

Force Reaction (N)

20.00
2.5
15.00 2
1.5
10.00
1
5.00
0.5
0.00 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Varying web Parameters (mm) Varying web Parameters (mm)

Rectangular Circular Elliptical Rectangular Circular Elliptical

(b) (e)

15.3
15.25
Deformaon x103 (mm)

15.2
15.15
15.1
15.05
15
14.95
14.9
14.85
0 1 2 3 4 5
Varying web Parameters (mm)

Rectangular Circular Ellipcal

(c)
Fig. 6 a–e Structural behavior of the microgripper design with varying flexure hinge parameters

2.2.1 Effect of flexure hinge web thickness variation Flexure hinges with rectangular or straight beams are consid-
ered for this analysis. The numerical results for various web
The effect of flexure hinges on the structural behavior of the thicknesses are illustrated in Fig. 5a–e.
gripping mechanism is studied by varying the web thickness Figure 5a shows that the increasing web thickness increases
of the flexure hinges (t) from 0.4 to 2 mm in steps of 0.2 mm. the equivalent stresses at the flexure hinges. As the web
110
Fig. 7 Deformation-measuring experimental setup for the microgripper
thickness increases, the stiffness of the straight beam also in-
creases and hence the equivalent strain, strain energy, and reac-
tion force (Fig. 5b–d). Figure 5e shows that the deformation of
the gripper decreases while increasing the web thickness. As
also observed from Fig. 5a–e, the linearity of the performance
curve has a negligible effect due to the geometry variations in
the different flexure hinges, which leads to the variation in the
number of elements and distribution of elements.
2.2.2 Effect of flexure hinge contour variation
Rectangular flexure hinges In rectangular flexures, a con-
stant web thickness is considered and the web length varies
from 1 to 4 mm with an increment of 0.5 mm. The structural
behavior of the microgripper design is studied for all the web
lengths using finite element analysis (FEA) simulations.
Figure 6a shows the equivalent stress distribution and is found
to be linearly decreased with the increase in web length. At
certain locations, the percentage of variation is very less. The
behavior of the equivalent strain and the strain energy param-
eter decreases linearly as the web length increases. The strain
energy decreases due to the presence of stiffness of the flexure
hinges which decreased as web length increases. Deformation
of the microgripper increases linearly while increasing the
Fig. 8 The microgripper a before
actuation and b during actuation
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:103–112
15.5
Deformaon x10-3(mm)
15
14.5
14
13.5
13
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Web thickness (mm)
Exp FEA
Fig. 9 Effect of flexure hinge web thickness (considered rectangular
flexure hinges)
web length up to a certain point. From Fig. 6, it is also ob-
served that the slope of the curve is negligible after a certain
point (web length greater than 3.0 mm). This clearly reveals
that when the straight beam is used for the design, the best
option is to choose the end value of the maximum slope of the
curve. The variations in the deformation, equivalent stress,
strain, and strain energy of the microgripper are very low for
the web lengths of 3, 3.5, and 4 mm. Hence, the web length of
3.0 mm is considered as the maximum length of the web for
this design. Therefore, it is suggested that the web length with
3.0-mm straight beams for this design is the best option.
Circular flexure hinges In this research work, another attempt
has also been made to evaluate the characteristic of the
microgripper by introducing circular flexure hinges at the
senseless regions. The radius (r) of the circular contour hinges
is varied from 1 to 4 mm in steps of 0.5 mm. From Fig. 6, the
circular contour flexure hinges behave similarly to the rectan-
gular flexure hinges. On the other hand, the trend of the per-
formance curves is similar but offset with the curves obtained
from the rectangular hinge curve. Equivalent stresses, equiva-
lent strain, strain energy, and reaction forces developed at the
input port of the circular hinges are higher than those of the
rectangular hinges. Deformations found in the microgripper
with circular hinges are lower than those in the microgripper
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2017) 93:103–112
15.4
15.2
Deformaon x10-3 (mm) 15
14.8
14.6
14.4
14.2
14
012345
Varying web Parameters (mm)
Circular Ellipcal
Fig. 10 Experimentally measured deformation for various flexure hinge
parameters
with rectangular hinges. This is due to the decrease in stiffness
of the circular flexure as the radius parameter increases.
Elliptical flexure hinges Elliptical flexure hinges are impor-
tant from the structural stability point of view. In this research
work, the ratio of the minimum and maximum radii of the
elliptical contour is taken as a constant of 1.5. Web length is
maintained as constant, and the minimum radius of the ellipti-
cal contour is considered from 1 to 4 mm to compare the other
types of flexure hinge contours discussed earlier. From Fig. 6,
the curves are observed to be offset to other flexure hinge
contour curves and the structural behavior of elliptical contour
hinges is found to be the same as that of the other types of
contours considered in this research work. The equivalent
stresses and equivalent strain developed in elliptical hinges
are lower than the respective values of the rectangular and
circular hinges. Similarly, the strain energy and the reaction
forces developed in the elliptical hinges are lower than those
of the circular hinges and rectangular hinges. The deformations
of the elliptical hinges are lesser than those of the rectangular
hinges and higher than those of the circular hinges. This behav-
ior is due to the stiffness value lying between the stiffness of the
rectangular and circular hinges.
3 Experimental verification
Numerically investigated flexure hinge parameters of the de-
sign are also required to be evaluated through an appropriate
experimental technique [27]. In this research work, the exper-
imental setup is developed with shape memory alloy (SMA)
wire actuation as shown in Fig. 7. A digital microscope is
utilized to capture the motion of the microgripper, and the
captured image is measured with the measurement software
as shown in Fig. 8. The microgripper with all the parameters
was fabricated from stainless steel (SS-316) using the wire
EDM technique. The result of the various web thicknesses
of the rectangular-type flexure hinges is plotted in Fig. 9. It
111
reveals that increasing the web thickness of the flexure hinges
reduces the output deformation of the microgripper. This is
due to an increase in stiffness which restricts flexibility.
Figure 10 shows the deformation for various contours for
varying web parameter. Rectangular contours are finding
maximum deformation among other contours due to a high
flexibility value. The trend of the graph obtained through
experimental results is similar to the FEA results, and the
error percentage was found to be less than 10 %. The results
show that up to 3.0 mm, the percentage of variation in
Rectangular deformation is steadily increasing and after that, the
variation is very minimum, which confirms that 3.0 mm is
best for this kinematic configuration.
4 Conclusions
In this work, a logical methodology is developed to design a
compliant mechanism. Topology optimization is performed to
obtain the conceptual design of a microgripper mechanism.
The optimized structure of the MATLAB program had many
senseless regions. These senseless regions are replaced with
suitable elastic pivot or flexure hinges. Appropriate flexure
hinges for this mechanism are found by performing structural
analysis for various geometric parameters such as web thick-
ness (t) and the contour profile (straight beam, circular, and
elliptical) through FEA and experimental technique. The total
deformation of the microgripper with rectangular flexure
hinges is greater than that of the other types of flexure hinges.
However, the stress developed at the corner is higher than that
at the other segments of the flexure hinges. The stress distri-
bution in the elliptical flexure hinges is more uniform and
better compared to that of the other types of contours. Circular
hinges are more precise compared to the other flexure hinge
contours because the axis center of rotation (axis drift or par-
asitic motion) varies greatly in the other flexure hinge con-
tours. Since the stress concentration is high at the sharp cor-
ners of the rectangular hinges, elliptical hinges are preferable.
Elliptical contour flexure hinges are suitable for this
microgripper with a plunger. The tips of the plunger are de-
signed as curved so that the minimum area of contact should
act on the microobject, a point contact. The electrostatic forces
at the tip of the plunger are negligible.
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