Design of a Novel Dual-Axis Micromanipulator With an Asymmetric Compliant Structure

This paper presents a novel piezoelectrically actuated dual-axis micromanipulator with an asymmetric compliant structure. The mechanical design of the micromanipulator is first presented. A novel guiding bridge-type mechanism was proposed and utilized in the left part of the micromanipulator to improve the dynamic performance of the micromanipulator. The analytical model has been established based on the pseudorigid-body model and matrix-based compliance modeling method. The kinematic and the precision of the micromanipulator have been analyzed, and the input and output couplings have been investigated. The prototype of the micromanipulator has been fabricated by wire electrodischarge machining. Then, open-loop experimental tests have been performed. The experimental results match well with the analytical calculation, and the amplification ratios are 11.12 and 4.64 for the left part and right part, respectively. Proportional-integral controller has been used to regulate the output displacement and grasping force, and a series of closed-loop experiments have been conducted to investigate the performance of the micromanipulator. The results show that the position resolution for both the right and left parts is 0.15 μm, and the force resolution is 4 mN.