Micromanipulation System Design Based on Selective Actuation Mechanisms

Abstract

The flexure parallel mechanism (FPM) possessing selective actuation (SA) feature can be used as a micromanipulation system. The design of FPMs with the SA characteristic consists of type synthesis of parallel mechanisms possessing the required number of degree of freedom (DOF), geometric arrangement of the structure to obtain the SA and conversion of the kinematic mechanism into the flexure mechanism. This paper focuses on the SA synthesis and the conversion into flexure mechanism. The SA synthesis is based on the diagonal form Jacobian matrix of the mechanism. The synthesis method is illustrated by two designs of FPMs with selective actuation feature: an SA 3-DOF translational FPM and an SA 6-DOF FPM. The analytical determination of the stiffness matrix is proposed for the design. The prototype of the SA 3-DOF FPM is then developed and used for experimental verification.