Traditionally, designers of mechanisms and mechanical systems for motion and force transmission assume rigid links to component members and fixed location for the joints. Elastic deformation is traditionally viewed as a hindrance to the overall performance. However, when the rigidity assumption is relaxed and deformation of objects is utilized favorably for motion and force transmission, there is a possibility of turning this designer's problem into a solution; thus resulting in a new class of mechanisms called ˇ°Compliant Mechanismsˇ±. In recent years considerable research efforts have been directed towards development of systematic design approaches to aid design of these unconventional mechanisms. The systematic creation of such mechanisms often requires specific knowledge and a range of tools that cross disciplinary boundaries.

In this work, our efforts is to create a design tool to aid the designer to design such compliant mechanism-based tools. We create parameterized models that are suitable for application of standard optimization techniques. Such optimization problem is multi-objective by nature and involves tradeoffs between flexibility and rigidity of models. In our work, we propose to streamline this implementation by using a standardized FEM solver (Comsol Multiphysics - formerly FEMLAB) and a standardized optimization algorithms (MATLAB Optimization Toolbox) in creating a user-friendly yet powerful design tool.