A Compliant Ultra-Precision 6-DOF Parallel Positioner Based on the Coarse/Fine Dual Architecture

Compliant mechanisms play an important role in the precision engineering field from optical stages to micro-electromechanical systems (MEMSs) for their excellent performances. In this paper, a compliant ultra-precision parallel positioner is proposed based on the coarse/fine dual architecture, which combines two elementary types of parallel mechanisms. In order to ensure wide motion range and high precision simultaneously in this system, novel flexure hinges are adopted as compliant passive joints, and piezoelectric motors and piezoelectric ceramics are utilized as coarse and fine actuators respectively. The kinematics of this coarse/fine dual parallel positioner is analyzed via stiffness assembly method based on the stiffness model of individual flexure hinge. The control system configuration and control strategy based on the dual architecture are introduced. Finally the preliminary precision performance test results of this system are presented