Novel Type of Hybrid 3-DOF Micromanipulator with Piezoelectric Actuators – Mechanical Construction and Simulations

The paper reports on the main assumptions and guidelines regarding construction of a novel type of parallel micro-robot with 3 degrees of freedom. Such micromanipulator is a hybrid construction, consisting of three arms connected together in parallel structure. The mechanical construction is a combination of rotational joints with bearings and flexible compliant joints so called: flexures. The whole construction measures several cubic centimeters and operates within c.a. 4 cubic centimeters workspace. In addition, the article relates to selected aspects of the control system, mathematical analysis of kinematics, basic simulations, specification of the range of movement of all actuators, and workspace of the moving platform. Modeling flexures using FE method will also be presented.