Abstract Increasing applications of compliant microgripper demands flexibility in working with a wide range of micro-objects
which requires a large workspace, high precision motion, low parasitic motion, and satisfactory bandwidth control. To
meet the requirement of pick and place manipulation tasks, a high amplification piezoelectric actuated microgripper is
proposed and investigated in this paper. The high amplification of the microgripper is achieved using a compound amplifier.
The compound amplifier is assisted to magnify the embedded piezoelectric actuator’s displacement. Two cascaded
lever-type mechanisms are symmetrically connected with a bridge-type mechanism and form a three-stage amplification
mechanism-based compound amplifier. Further, the four-bar parallelogram mechanisms are integrated with the thirdstage
displacement amplification mechanisms to linearize the output motion of the microgripper jaws. The characteristics
of the microgripper were evaluated by computational analysis and validated using experimental investigations. Further,
the design parameters are identified from the geometrical model of the individual displacement transmission mechanisms
to perform a response surface optimization on the configured mechanism by the computational method. The design
optimization of the microgripper resulted in a high displacement amplification ratio with a large workspace. The experimental
investigations show that the designed microgripper is capable of achieving a high displacement amplification ratio
of 34.5 and a total output displacement of 529.4 μm. Further, the characteristics of the microgripper such as motion
resolution, and parasitic motion indicate that it will be able to perform high-precision micro-object grasping/releasing
tasks.