Study and Design Conceptualization of Compliant Mechanisms and Designing a Compliant Accelerator Pedal

Compliant mechanisms work on the elastic body deformations of a material to transfer or/and amplify an input displacement to an output desired displacement. They are highly preferred in applications demanding friction-less and backlash-free motion with high precision. In this paper, the accelerator lever arm and the torsional spring are replaced by an equivalent distributed compliant mechanism. In this mechanism, flexibility of lever arm eliminates the use of torsional spring and additional bolted parts in the entire assembly. The traditional accelerator pedal of passenger car consists of a stationery mount and a lever arm, loaded by a torsional spring, which is directly linked to the accelerator cable operated by the driver. The compliant accelerator pedal can be fabricated as an entire monolithic piece of polypropylene using 3D printing technique. The CAD model of the assembly is modelled on SolidWorks and simulated on ANSYS. The mathematical model of accelerator pedal is developed and simulated using MATLAB. Nonlinear model results that the necessary displacement can be achieved with precision control over the pull of the accelerator cable without compromising the automobile ergonomics. This mechanism is validated and used as an accelerator pedal in an all-terrain Baja vehicle which is designed and fabricated at the university.