Abstract—This study presents the design, optimization, and experimental validation of low-cost, 3D-printed robotic grippers utilizing compliant mechanisms. The development is based on a three-dimensional Topology Optimization Method (TOM) implemented with the Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) approach. The Method of Moving Asymptotes (MMA) was employed to solve the associated nonlinear optimization problems for synthesizing flexible fingers, while a quadratic approximation method was utilized for designing rigid support structures. Two distinct objective functions were formulated: the first aimed to maximize the output displacement of a monolithic Polylactic Acid (PLA) finger by exploiting material compliance, and the second focused on minimizing the weight of the support structures under stiffness constraints. The optimized designs were fabricated via additive manufacturing and assembled into two-, three-, and four-finger gripper configurations. Experimental evaluation on an ABB IRB-120 robotic arm demonstrated the grippers’ exceptional adaptability in manipulating objects of varied geometries and surface textures. Furthermore, payload capacity tests revealed maximum loads of 1.5 kg, 2.2 kg, and 2.7 kg for the two-, three-, and four-finger grippers, respectively. The results confirm that the proposed methodology, centered on MMA-based 3D topology optimization, provides an effective framework for developing high-performance, low-cost compliant robotic grippers.

Keywords—compliant mechanism, gripper, topology optimization, Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP), method of moving asymptotes, 3D printing, Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

Cite: Brandon Lopez, Jaime Bakir, and Bernardo Quiroga, "Compliant Mechanisms: Implementation of Topological Optimization Method for the Development of Robotic Gripper with Flexible Finger," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 163-173, 2026. doi: 10.18178/ijmerr.15.2.163-173

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).