Development of a dexterous haptic micro/nanomanipulator utilizing a hybrid parallel-serial flexure mechanism

Flexible new micro/nanomanipulation tools are required to intuitively perform micro/nano operations without the need for expensive, bespoke tools. In this paper, the design and analysis of a dexterous 4 degree of freedom (DOF) hybrid serial-parallel micro/nanomanipulator is presented. The manipulator is controlled through a haptic device, enabling a trained user to control the system's motion, and sense the contact force applied to the target. The hybrid mechanism consists of a planar 3-DOF flexure-mechanism coupled to a 1-DOF flexure-mechanism. Both of the subsystems are monolithically constructed, and incorporate piezoelectric actuators (PEAs). The total mechanism is capable of motions up to 39.16, 36.18, and 38.9 micrometers in the X, Y, and Z axes, respectively, and 2.309 milliradians of rotation about the Z axis. A combination feedforward-feedback scaled haptic control scheme is developed. Using this, and with appropriate choice of end-effector, a user can perform a range of high-precision micromanipulation and assembly tasks. The mechanical design and analysis of the 4-DOF mechanism, and haptic control scheme are presented. The performance of the system is experimentally investigated, and the haptic scheme verified.