CMR News

Undergraduate student Sterling Anderson and ME Professor Dr. Brian Jensen received the "Compliant Mechanisms Award: Applications" in recognition of a prize winning paper. The award is presented annually to the authors of the best paper demonstrating an application of compliant mechanisms. The award was received at the ASME Mechanisms & Robotics Conference held in Brooklyn, New York, from August 4th-5th. This conference is the premier conference for work in compliant mechanisms, with papers from many researchers all over the world. This is the second year that BYU has won the award.

Eric Stratton, an MS student in the CMR won 2nd place in the ASME International Student Mechanisms and Robot Design Competition, Graduate Division with his entry entitled, "Posterior Compliant Load-sharing Spinal Implant." The competition involved contestants submitting their written reports to academic and industrial judges.

As part of an ongoing effort to encourage collaboration and cooperation in the field of compliant mechanism research, the Compliant Mechanisms Research (CMR) Lab invited Professor Mary Frecker of Penn State University to visit Brigham Young University. While at BYU on March 31, 2008, Professor Frecker presented information in morphing wing technology for unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Morphing wings use compliant mechanism technology to change their size and shape. They enable the UAV to adapt during flight to meet changing requirements such as speed and distance capabilities.

On 25 February, 2008, Professor Katsuo Kurabayashi of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan visited the BYU Compliant Mechanisms Research (CMR) Lab. Several students and two professors made presentations on work being done in the fields of compliant mechanisms and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). After the presentations, Professor Kurabayashi shared information related to his current research.

On February 19, 2008, the National Science Foundation awarded the Compliant Mechanisms Research Lab a three-year research grant for developing a new class of mechanisms called "Lamina Emergent Mechanisms" (LEMs). LEMs are compliant mechanisms which are fabricated from one or more planar layers of material (lamina). When actuated, LEMs emerge from their initial planar state.

The International Design Engineering Technical Conferences, sponsored by ASME, were held the first week of September 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference is attended annually by approximately 1,000 engineers from the industry and academia. The CMR lab was represented at the conference by five ME professors and 15 students or recent graduates from the program. Students took part by presenting papers and participating in the ASME Mechanism Design Competition. The BYU team was excited to bring home three awards (see related stories).

In September 2007, Steve Landon (a recent graduate), Spencer Magleby, and Brian Jensen won a best paper award at the 31st Mechanisms & Robotics Conference held as part of the ASME Design Engineering Technical Conferences in Las Vegas, Nevada. The paper, "A Compliant Rotating Joint for Deployable Wings on Small UAVs," applies compliant mechanism technology to wing storage on small Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV). The design incorporates a bistable mechanism which enables the wings to extend for flight and then retract when the plane is stored. Possible applications include fitting a plane into a soldier's rucksack.

Peter Halverson, a PhD student at Brigham Young University, won 2nd Place in the Graduate Division of the 2008 ASME Student Mechanisms Design Competition for his entry entitled "Contact-aided Compliant Mechanism Based Spinal Arthroplasty." The contest was part of the ASME Mechanisms & Robotics Conference held in Brooklyn, New York, held from August 4th-5th. Peter's goal was to produce a viable alternative to spinal fusion by designing a device that mimics the physiological motion of the spine. The presented design has the potential to restore both the quality and quantity of motion in the lower back as well as virtually eliminate wear, the number one cause of orthopedic loosening in hip and knee replacements.

Graduate student Quentin Aten was recognized for his work in the bio-medical application of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). On September 4, 2007, Quentin presented a poster and an oral presentation entitled "Out-of-Plane Cellular Manipulator" as part of the ASME Undergraduate Mechanism Design Competition in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was selected as one of four finalists to present at the conference, where he placed second overall.

The Best Paper Award for the 1st International Conference on Micro- and Nanosystems was awarded to Tyler Waterfall, Kendall Teichert and Professor Brian Jensen. The conference was part of the 2007 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences.