Optimum design and development of an XY flexure micromanipulator for micro scale positioning

This paper presents the design and development procedures of a new decoupled XY micromanipulator for micro scale positioning applications. The manipulator is featured with parallel-kinematic architecture, flexure hinge-based joints, and piezoelectric actuation. Based on the lumped model, the efficient models for kinematics, statics and dynamics of the XY stage have been obtained, which are verified by resorting to the finite element analysis via ANSYS software package. Moreover, the stage dimensions are optimized through the particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach, and a manipulator with performances satisfying the requirements is generated. Furthermore, a prototype of the manipulator has been fabricated via the wire- EDM process. The developed micromanipulator is expected to be adopted in practical applications.