Design of compliant mechanisms using continuum topology optimization: A review

Micromanipulation is a hot topic due to its enabling role in various research fields. In order to perform a high precision operation at a small scale, compliant mechanisms have been proposed and applied for decades. In microscale manipulation, micro-/nano-positioning is the most fundamental operation because a precision positioning is the premise of subsequent operations. This paper is concentrated on reviewing the state-of-the-art research on complaint micro-/nano-positioning stage design in recent years. It involves the major processes and components for designing a compliant positioning stage, e.g., actuator selection, stroke amplifier design, connecting scheme of the multi-DOF stage and structure optimization. The review provides a reference to design a compliant micro-/nano-positioning stage for pertinent applications.

Survey on Recent Designs of Compliant Micro-/Nano-Positioning Stages

This paper presents the design of a new compact one-degree-of-freedom (1-DOF) compliant stage driven by a piezoelectric actuator (PEA) for micro/nanopositioning in the vertical direction. An orthogonal compound bridge-type amplifier is introduced to amplify the displacement of the PEA. It significantly reduces the height of the stage and leads to a compact design. By analytical modeling of the mechanism, the design variables are determined, which are then optimized via the multiobjective genetic algorithm based on the finite-element analysis. Simulation results show that the 1-DOF stage is able to provide the maximum displacement of $181.18~\mu \text{m}$ in theory, which is more than $12\times $ the input displacement of PEA. Payload test results indicate that the stage can support a maximum load of about 80 N. Comparison study reveals that the presented vertical positioning stage offers a more compact structure than existing ones. A prototype is fabricated for experimental studies, and the deviation between the experimental and simulation results is discussed in detail. Moreover, closed-loop performance test exhibits a resolution of 10 nm for the developed vertical positioning stage. Note to Practitioners —The motivation of this paper is to devise a compact flexure-based stage, which can be mounted on the top of an XY stage for constructing a hybrid type of XYZ stage dedicated to micro/nanopositioning applications. Such a design scheme provides a more flexible solution than serial- and parallel-kinematic designs. In order to fulfill the design requirement and to improve the compactness and output directionality of the stage, a series of design processes is conducted. The design parameters are optimized and the optimal design leads to the stage dimension of 58 mm $\times20$ mm $\times15.5$ mm (length $\times $ width $\times $ height), which offers a motion range of $97.32~\mu \text{m}$ as verified by the experimental study. In consideration of the motion range and physical size, the proposed stage offers a more compact structure than available designs. Experimental results demonstrate the fine performance of the developed prototype stage for vertical micro/nanopositioning.

Design, Fabrication, and Testing of a New Compact Piezo-Driven Flexure Stage for Vertical Micro/Nanopositioning

A New Compliant Microgripper and Study for Flexure Hinges Shapes

Structural optimization of a rotary joint by hybrid method of FEM, neural-fuzzy and water cycle-moth flame algorithm for robotics and automation manufacturing

Advancement of precision industries, displacement amplifying device is essential to produce precise and long range of motion for micro-actuator. Compliant mechanism based displacement amplifier (DA) is more appropriate to attain high precision motion. Compliant mechanism utilizes elastic nature of material to achieve required motion. In this research paper, compliant mechanism design is developed using topology optimization. The output of the topologically optimized design is impossible to fabricate as it is due to the presence of senseless regions. Hence, this optimized design is considered as a primary design of compliant mechanism which provides the configuration of kinematic linkages and also provides the details of the geometrical locations of the flexure hinges. Selection of appropriate geometrical parameters of the flexure hinges is another critical task in the design process and parameterization technique is used to determine flexure hinge parameters. Structural performance of mechanical amplifier confirmed using finite element method (FEM).

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/149/1/012129/pdf

Sai Aswin Srikanth

Papers

A new method for designing a compliant mechanism based displacement amplifier

Design and Development of Compliant Mechanisms Using Parameterization Technique