Design of a precision compliant parallel positioner driven by dual piezoelectric actuators

This paper presents a precision compliant parallel-structure positioner, which is dually driven by six piezoelectric motors and six piezoelectric ceramics. This compliant system has a high load capacity of more than 2 kg because the parallel mechanism with high load capacity is the main architecture. This system can also provide relatively large workspace and high accuracy simultaneously compared with conventional compliant positioner systems because it perfectly integrates two kinds of piezoelectric actuators in one system. The end platform has the stroke of 10 rum in three linear motion directions and of 6-arc-degrees in three angle motion directions, respectively, for the adoption of large motion range actuator piezoelectric motors. The positioning resolution and repeatability of the end platform is nanometer scale for the adoption of high precision actuator piezoelectric ceramics. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.