Analytical stiffness analysis of a family of spatial strip-driven devices

Strip-driven devices are appealing solutions for the guidance of the relative rolling motion of two bodies, due to their compactness and their simplicity. A new family of spatial strip-driven devices was presented as a generalization of classic planar solutions. These new devices allow a generic spatial rolling motion between the bodies, making them suitable for a wider range of applications, such as the accurate guidance of human joint motion. In the present study, an analytical method to perform the stiffness analysis of these spatial devices is presented and some numerical results are provided. These results show a non linear behaviour and an overall high stifness in every tested condition except for translations along the contact line.