Ants that can carry forty times their body weight and grasshoppers that can jump twenty times their body length don’t use rigid links, gears, axles, and hinges. Yet, traditional engineering pursues strong, stiff designs resulting in large, heavy systems which starkly contrast with much of nature’s design. Following nature’s methodology—utilizing the elasticity of materials—strong and compliant systems can be realized, resulting in lighter, more robust, higher-precision systems. For human assist applications ranging from prosthetics and orthotics for people with disabilities to improved ergonomics for factory workers, to exoskeletons for combat soldiers, we need to pursue biomimetic designs that follow nature’s example in its use of elasticity.
I propose to provide the mathematical framework necessary to incorporate dynamically optimal compliant structures in the design of human assist systems. This will require a significant focus on modeling dynamic compliance, viscoelastic behavior of materials, and non-linear elasticity to allow full range of human motion. It will also require optimization of designs and establishment of a unique design synthesis methodology. Engineering literature is rich with methods for analysis of dynamic systems, but my proposal addresses the inverse problem – the synthesis of compliant systems for ideal dynamic behavior. I intend to apply this research to compliant exoskeletons.