{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T19:24:15Z","timestamp":1789154655929,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,8]],"date-time":"2022-12-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1670457600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Micromachines"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) extensively employed planar mechanisms with elastic curved beams. However, using a curved circular beam as a flexure hinge, in most cases, needs a more sophisticated kinetostatic model than the conventional planar flexures. An elastic curved beam generally allows its outer sections to experience full plane mobility with three degrees of freedom, making complex non-linear models necessary to predict their behavior. This paper describes the direct kinetostatic analysis of a planar gripper with an elastic curved beam is described and then solved by calculating the tangent stiffness matrix in closed form. Two simplified models and different contributions to derive their tangent stiffness matrices are considered. Then, the Newton\u2013Raphson iterative method solves the non-linear direct kinetostatic problem. The technique, which appears particularly useful for real-time applications, is finally applied to a case study consisting of a four-bar linkage gripper with elastic curved beam joints that can be used in real-time grasping operations at the microscale.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/mi13122172","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,9]],"date-time":"2022-12-09T02:20:31Z","timestamp":1670552431000},"page":"2172","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":21,"title":["Direct Kinetostatic Analysis of a Gripper with Curved Flexures"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5376-7227","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alessandro","family":"Cammarata","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Viale Andrea Doria, 6, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pietro Davide","family":"Maddio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Viale Andrea Doria, 6, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rosario","family":"Sinatra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Viale Andrea Doria, 6, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5390-2831","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicola Pio","family":"Belfiore","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Industrial, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, University of Roma Tre, Via Vito Volterra, 62, 00146 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"270","DOI":"10.1115\/1.2919358","article-title":"On the nomenclature, classification and abstractions of compliant mechanisms","volume":"116","author":"Midha","year":"1994","journal-title":"J. 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