Delta³: design and control of a flexure hinge mechanism

Abstract

In the fields of micro positioning, micromanipulation and micro machining, the required motion precision is continuously increasing. The demand also increases for high dynamic performances (large bandwidth, high closed loop stiffness.). In many cases an inappropriate mechanical structure prevents to achieve these objectives. For example backlash or friction have to be reduced as much as possible. In this paper, we propose backlash-free and friction-free manipulators using flexure hinges and direct drive actuators. A three degrees of freedom (dof) parallel robot (X, Y, Z) that is a transposition in a flexible structure of the Delta robot kinematics is presented. We focus on the design and control of the robot. A simple dynamic model is proposed and compared with measurements. The system is characterized and we propose solutions to improve performances. These solutions are tested on a linear stage.