Study of positioning accuracy for miniature 3-DOF inchworm mechanism for accurate & flexible microscopic processing

In this paper, we describe an positioning repeatability of 3-DOF inchworm mechanism. To provide flexible and compact-sized microscopic operations, a unique locomotion mechanism composed of four piezoelectric actuators and two U-shaped electromagnetic legs is proposed. Here two legs arranged on a cross from each other are connected by four piezoelectric actuators so that the mechanism can move in any direction, i.e., in X- and Y-directions as well as rotate at the specified point precisely in the manner of an inchworm. In experiments, several performances such as motion accuracy, repeatability and uniformity of moving distances of translational motions in 8 directions are measured by the CCD camera-based microscopic image analyzer. The design procedure and biomedical applications are also discussed for evaluating the feasibility of microrobotics.