KINEMATICS FEATURE ANALYSIS OF A 3-DOF COMPLIANT MECHANISM FOR MICRO MANIPULATION

Kinematics and its related issues of a 3-DOF in-parallel compliant mechanism are focused on. The micro manipulation application that requires high accuracy is developed. Design of the developed micromanipulator is based on the modified Delta mechanism. The main advantages of this manipulator are the use of only revolute flexure hinges and the capability to produce pure translation theoretically. The aim is to develop an efficient kinematic model used for positioning control. For this purpose, the Jacobian matrix relating the end effector position with the actuator displacements is obtained by both theoretical derivation and experiment. Aiming at the abnormality in the motion capabilities of the micromanipulator found in calibration experiment, the mobility of the compliant mechanism on a theoretical level is analyzed by using the matrix method and screw theory. Both the experimental and theoretical results have verified that the compliant mechanism does have rotational motion.