“Introducing Flexible Machines: Course Overview” - Compliant Mechanism Design (Part 1)

Compliant mechanisms are flexible machines that bend and deform to achieve a desired task. Examples include origami, soft robots, precision flexure bearings, flexible medical devices, and most microelectromechanical (MEMS) systems.
This video provides an introductory overview for a multi-part mechanical engineering course taught by Professor Jonathan Hopkins at UCLA about how to design compliant mechanisms. This course will cover the most popular approaches used to design and fabricate such mechanisms but will primarily focus on an approach Professor Hopkins created while a graduate student at MIT called the freedom and constraint topologies (FACT) design approach.
Additional course resources are posted to Professor Hopkins’ website: www.flexible.seas.ucla.edu
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to my brother Jason Hopkins for his help animating my channel’s logo reveal. Also special thanks to Blaine Arihara for allowing me to use the video of his metal flexure stage. Finally, I am grateful to Boston Dynamics for allowing the public to reuse the amazing Atlas Robot footage! The video was taken from the following KZbin videos, which are all listed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (Reuse Allowed): • Video • OMG Boston Dynamics At... • Video • Atlas back flip
Donate to help support my channel:
If you’d like to make a one-time donation, you can use the following link:
PayPal.me/FACTsMechDesign
Thank you for your support! It is much appreciated and helps enable me to make more content.
Disclaimer:
Responsibility for the content of this video is my own. The University of California, Los Angeles is not involved with this channel nor does it endorse its content.

[@tgirard123]

I'm surprised there aren't more people subscribing. I'm not a grad student but I definitely love 3D printing stuff and playing with designs and this channel is like crack to people like me.

[@SparrowHawkPilot]

My mind is compliant for this course.

[@vasudevk1798]

Stumbled on rather accidentally while searching for different viewpoints on approaching mechanisms. Perfectly packaged for what I was looking for..Great material and thanks for the professor's time and efforts.

[@vishank7]

I am so, SO happy I came across this channel! Exactly what I was looking for!

[@marshallsober]

all these subject are the core of what i was looking into..

[@BabaChiro]

This is absolutely amazing, i am so happy i found this channel thank you so much for making it available to all of us!

[@Etrehumain123]

Im a piano builder since 10 years and I own a 3D printer since a year, and I printed mechanisms and compliant mechanism to learn more how I can bring 3D prints in the piano action. I want now to remove all strings and joints to compliant mechanism. Thank you for your teachings, I will dismantle the process in small simple parts and test everything

[@ExtantFrodo2]

What an intriguing notion.

[@JoshuaValerio]

Loving the production quality and definitely valued learning about FACT in my undergrad!

[@trentseymore7385]

Okay, where's the course? 6:53 How do I skip to part 9? I figured it would be in a playlist on his page, but I can only find parts 1-3 for some reason.

[@vigneshR_5293]

Wow! Just came across this channel. I’m blown away by the content and quality! Thank you!

[@gvdilshan7555]

Amazing thia ia what i was looking for untill now

[@adams4537]

This is documentary level editing! Truly high quality!

[@zurichsee706]

This channel is GOLD!!!!! Thanks Professor, I am really impressed by your high quality infos.

[@Shika1son]

Glad I stumbled upon this channel. Just got into 3D printing last year and definitely love to design some compliant mechanisms for work and play. 😊

[@bkmakhoba]

Yay!

[@bkmakhoba]

Who's excited to learn!

[@carlgeagea]

Great quality Professor. Hope your channel blows up!

[@lukeshaw1252]

Very high quality! More universities should be teaching compliant mechanism design as it's the basis for everything in nature

[@matthewkopp2391]

Thank you for posting! I am Looking forward to the lessons. I am working on an origami lightweight tent structure and have already discovered some unique exciting compliant mechanisms which fold large square footage all at once. I hope to discover more so it becomes a one piece compliant mechanism that folds completely flat.

[@JGD444]

THIS is the course I been waiting for! thank!!!!!

[@lohikarhu734]

Jonathan; after 'following' you for a while, nice to see you in video, with your passion for compliant mechanisms! I've wondered if you, your colleagues, or students, have worked with materials, or combinations of materials, to allow compliant mechanisms to provide feedback, probably one of the things that makes them work so well in nature... I worked with a company 8 or 9 years ago, which used SMA wire for both actuation and feedback. Now, I need to get back to this video!

[@Alexander-dh3uk]

Thank you so much for this free course , I so happy to find this channel. Greetings from Brazil 🇧🇷🙏🏻

[@karthick86c]

Thanks a million! for making this available to student community! Much appreciated!

[@thinkaboutelephant97]

WE LOVE U PROFESSOR HOPKINS

[@rowmen6293]

Yes, i like this

[@cofa4011]

Oh :D I'm glad i discovered your channel, this is going to be very interesting ! Thank you for the knowledge you share and the work you put into the videos for us ! Wish you the best !

[@dougsteel7414]

The robot at the beginning was very Yoshimitsu. The most powerful driving forces in evolution are preserved existence - through energy efficiency and acquisition. No wonder millions of years with the failure penalty being death and billions of test candidates that nature has the best designs

[@balkedaquino1268]

I mean to be fair most animals are rigid bodies (bones) connected by joints (joints), only difference is that we're covered in squishy stuff

[@totalwayne3089]

I have to watch all of them and learn everything I can before he is going to grow and demands money to watch/ download the courses ^^

[@daviasdf]

Nice production quality. Looking forward to the later videos in the series.

[@tsenotanev]

i love it ... was he on veritasium

[@edwardmacnab354]

everything is both compliant AND rigid at some miniscule level , the question is only to what degree in each

[@alexandergallard3624]

Great content ... looking forward to hearing more about your work @ UCLA!

[@ZondaTheGoat]

So excited for this class!

[@mcallan9196]

Hi I'd like to skip ahead to Part 9 but I'm having trouble finding it. Is it available?

[@nunoricardoserafim3187]

Same

[@hmo983]

Great content. 10/10 quality. Thank you for this!

[@omerhakanokutan]

Hi, I had alrea0dy designed a compliant Balanself mechanism and it is activelly under design , just as enhancement of your Lecturw I want to gift the design details. Congrats

[@AsantePE]

Thank you for these gems !!!

[@shirleysycamore5363]

This is an awesome video. I am excited to participate in all the videos and the lessons.

[@ostenwiecenjap6544]

Can you do a video about optimization engineering ?

[@er8115]

i love it :D

[@moralesfabricio]

thanks for your channel, it is just what I was looking for! :)

[@JoshuaStults]

I love compliant mechanisms. The text scroll at the beginning of this video highlights all the benefits. What about volume? It seems that compliant mechanisms require more volume than rigid ones. Are there design approaches that yield mechanisms that are competitive in this dimension (volume of the mechanism)? Thanks! (really appreciate the production quality of these videos)

[@sepidehsk1555]

Great Informations I’m amazed 😍👌👌👌👌

[@marshallq645]

Great video! Very informative

[@kennethvuong2063]

Great editing!

[@CJ-tv9hd]

0:31 Plant and animals tend to be soft, flexible, and bendable. Yeah, lemme just bend my dog.

[@yogawillheal]

Nice job!

[@tejalbarnwal7617]

I cant find the link to your website in the description.Could you please post it once again?

[@zyxwvutsrqponmlkh]

You will comply, resistance is futile.

[@mariomeszaros1179]

Awesome Content!🙌 Great Chanel ❤️

[@elhuertopata8550]

Simplemente excelente

[@jasonhopkins8624]

So solid!

[@denisbalifi2971]

incroyable

[@heckyes]

Why are they called Compliant? What are the complying with?

[@TheFACTsofMechanicalDesign]

In the context of mechanical engineering, things that are compliant deform easily (i.e., with low stiffness). Thus, they comply to loads.

[@heckyes]

@@TheFACTsofMechanicalDesign Oooh, never thought of it that way before. Very cool.

[@saftigesfruchtchen456]

fuck yeah

[@Ksnieup]

Wow

[@geraldkenneth119]

While my personal bias is more towards computer science, AI, and brains, I would a blatant liar if I said I didn’t find the design of artificial materials, especially ones capable of adapting, quite interesting

[@SebastianGLong]

I love ittttttt 🐉❤️❤️

[@ninjanner7192]

Nice video and info!

[@gloglebag]

Where can I find your full course, if available at all.

[@viniciusfriasaleite8016]

I think the 6 videos of the channel are all of the course that has been posted

[@austinpriebe302]

But really aren't all mechanisms compliant with enough force?

[@mr_vvs]

Haha, I suppose so

[@amitrakshe5773]

I am Electronics Engineer can I do this course?

[@TheFACTsofMechanicalDesign]

Yes! Give it a try. The videos are taking longer to make than I would like but I have a lecture series on my channel on the topic as well if you want to try that. Enjoy

[@trone3630]

Okay Prof, you're doing good work, but don't let it go to your head. : ) Beginning at 0:24, you show both invertebrates (two) and vertebrates (six) as examples of non-rigid organisms. Invertebrates alone support your point. A break dancer and gymnast, using the bone structure of their arms, are not examples of your point. Vertebrates enjoy the advantages of being both rigid and non-rigid. This duality is elsewhere. The structure of a house allows for life inside. The structure of a road system, with traffic laws, allow people to drive safely and efficiently. Public transportation systems are the same, as are stable legal, financial, and political systems that allow people to flourish. So the flexible machines we like are complemented by rigid systems.

[@SaintAngerFTW]

I have found GOD here.

[@blindside_o0]

Thumbs up if you paused to read the star wars text

[@mj2068]

nice suit

[@VadimR4]

Too bad you talk about the amazing designs we see in nature, but then you do not give credit to the creator who made them. But flexures/compliant mechanisms are very fun to play with and design.

[@mrsledge]

hahahaha the list

[@Sherif-Nasser]

The nature doesn't create anything. Allah is only the creator.

[@variototo4d596]

betwin4d

[@mubashirahmad9694]

What is going onnn? i did NOT like mechanisms when i studied them in class, NOW i want to dive deep into this above mentioned course.. :/

[@rakennus7674]

Weird flex

[@Leonardokite]

0:36 and people still think that it happened by chance LOL. It just shows you how blinded the minds of humans are because of the love of themselves.

[@y.u.so.]

Have a look into genetic algorithm, maybe that will give you another perspective to your views.

[@Leonardokite]

@@y.u.so. microevolution is indeed alive and well. It is part of the intelligent code. Macro evolution is a joke.

[@y.u.so.]

@@Leonardokite isnt it so that the current state of living beings is due to these small changes that took over thousands of years?