Mobility and kinematic analysis of a novel dexterous micro gripper

The paper presents the design and analysis of a dexterous micro-gripper with two fingers and each finger has 2-DOF translational movement function. The two fingers can move independently in hundreds of microns´ range, and can cooperate with each other to realize complex operation for micro objects. The mobility characteristics and the inverse parallel kinematic model of a single finger are analyzed by resorting to screw theory and compliance and stiffness matrix method, which are validated by finite-element analysis (FEA). Both FEA and the theoretical model have well validated the movement of the fingers moving in translational way, the designed micro gripper can realize a lot of complex functions. Properly selecting the amplification ratio and the stroke of the PZT, we can mount the gripper onto a positioning stage to realize a larger motion range, which will make it be widely used in micro parts assembly and bio-operation systems.