Fig. 7
Empirical analysis of the rigid part ratio (\(\lambda\)). (a) Testbed used to measure the stiffness of the chain-linking structure (\(K_{\text {system}}\)) at varying lengths, and (b) corresponding results. As the length of the chain-linking structure increases, its stiffness decreases significantly, and the maximum force it can withstand is also reduced. (c) Testbed used to evaluate system stiffness as a function of \(\lambda\), and (d) the measured results. While higher \(\lambda\) values lead to increased system stiffness, the rate of improvement diminishes at larger values. The differing trends in (b) and (d) reflect the distinction between the stiffness of the structure itself and the overall system stiffness, as explained in Fig. 7b. Additionally, larger \(\lambda\) values lower the structure’s maximum force capacity, highlighting the need to select an optimal \(\lambda\).
