Design and Optimization of An XYZ Parallel Micromanipulator With Flexure Hinges

J Intell Robot Syst (2009) 55:377402
DOI 10.1007/s10846-008-9300-z
Design and Optimization of an XYZ Parallel
Micromanipulator with Flexure Hinges
Yangmin Li Qingsong Xu
Received: 30 November 2007 / Accepted: 24 November 2008 / Published online: 11 December 2008
Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract In this paper, a nearly decoupled XYZ translational compliant parallel
micromanipulator (CPM) is designed for micro/nano scale manipulation with fea-
tures of piezo-driven actuators and exure hinges. The CPM structure improvement
is made to enlarge the workspace and eliminate or reduce the stress stiffening,
buckling phenomenon, and parasitic motions of the original XYZ CPM, which
leads to a new CPM with a more compact structure. The CPM kinematics, parasitic
motions, and workspace are determined analytically, and the mathematical models
describing statics and dynamics of the CPM are established to evaluate its related
performances, which are veried by the nite element analysis (FEA) undertaken
in ANSYS environment. Based on the analytic models, the CPM dimensions have
been optimized by resorting to the particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach,
which produces a CPM having minimum parasitic motions and satisfying other
performance specications as validated by the FEA simulations.
Keywords Parallel manipulator Precision machine Flexure hinge
Robotic modeling Optimum design Particle swarm optimization (PSO)
1 Introduction
In the elds of micro/nano scale manipulation, micromanipulators with ultra-high
precision are urgently required to perform such tasks as bio-cell manipulation,
Categories (2), (3).
Y. Li (B) Q. Xu
Department of Electromechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology,
University of Macau, Av. Padre Toms Pereira, Taipa,
Macao SAR, Peoples Republic of China
e-mail: ymli@umac.mo
Q. Xu
e-mail: xu-qs@163.com
378 J Intell Robot Syst (2009) 55:377402
optical bers alignment, micro device assembly, and operation under scanning
probe microscopes, etc. It is well known that parallel kinematic mechanisms possess
inherent advantages over conventional serial manipulators in terms of high rigidity,
high load carrying capacity, and high accuracy, etc [13]. However, traditional paral-
lel manipulators suffer from errors due to clearance and backlash, hysteresis, and
frictions in the mechanical joints. Therefore, it is a major challenge to obtain ultra-
high precision using conventional joints. On the other hand, exure hinge-based com-
pliant mechanisms, which achieve the motion from deections of exure elements,
can be employed into parallel manipulators for the applications of requiring very
high precision [4, 5] thanks to their excellent characteristics of vacuum compatibility,
no backlash property, no nonlinear friction, simple structure and facilitated manu-
facture, and so on. These attributes have endowed compliant parallel manipulators
(CPMs) with potential ability in micro or nano scales precision operations.
In the literature, many CPMs have been designed for such purposes [69]. How-
ever, most of the existing manipulators can provide only a planar motion, or a
spatial combined motion of translation and rotation. In such applications as optical
alignment and cell injection operation, an XYZ-stage with three translational DOF
is preferred. For example, two positioning CPMs are proposed in [10] and [11],
however, the three translation motions are coupled, which complicate the control
of the micromanipulator and cost excessive fees and energies for the actuators from
the economy point of view. For this reason, several decoupled translational CPMs
have been proposed in [12, 13] recently. Nevertheless, these CPMs possess a complex
structure with a large volume which may not be suitable if the CPM residing in a
limited space is required.
In view of this point, we designed a novel micromanipulator in our previous work
[14], which was called a 3-PRC (three-prismatic-revolute-cylindrical) CPM as shown
in Fig. 1, the CPM provided three translational DOF in space, while possessed a very
simple structure. But we noticed that the previous 3-PRC CPM exhibited several
disadvantages in the aspects of stiffening, buckling, and parasitic motions after
further investigations, which could prevent its practical application in micro/nano
Fig. 1 The original
3-PRC CPM
PZT
Mobile platform
P joint
R joint
P joint
C joint
z
x
y
Fixed base
J Intell Robot Syst (2009) 55:377402 379
manipulation elds. To resolve these problems, the objective of the current research
is to improve the original 3-PRC CPM structure in order to eliminate or reduce its
vulnerabilities and to optimize its dimensions so as to obtain a newCPMwith optimal
performance. It will be shown that even if the CPM architecture can be improved
intuitively by an inspection of its structure, the CPM performance can be predicted
by resorting to the nite element analysis (FEA) via software package ANSYS since
it is not a straightforward work to evaluate the CPM performance analytically.
Besides, it is observed that the structure of improved 3-PRC CPM looks like the
Delta Cube proposed in [15]. However, an insightful comparison reveals that the
presented CPM has a different type of actuation, i.e., piezo-driven with a displace-
ment amplication mechanism to enlarge the workspace, and the three actuation
directions intersect at one common point to reduce parasitic motion. In a sense, the
designed CPM is an improved version of the Delta Cube. The novelty of the current
research lies in the design improvement and dimension optimization of the 3-PRC
CPM with signicantly enhanced performances.
The remainder of the paper is organized in the following way. The architecture of
the original 3-PRC CPMis briey described in Section 2, and the design modication
procedures are presented in Section 3 where a performance preview of the improved
CPM is provided. Then in Section 4, the DOF of the CPM is derived and the
kinematics models are established. Besides, the complicated parasitic motions are
evaluated and the workspace is determined as well due to elastic limits of exure
hinges. Afterwards, the analytical approaches for the assessment of statics and
dynamics of the CPM are carried out in Section 5 and 6, respectively, along with
the established models validated by FEA simulations. Furthermore, the optimal
design with the consideration of parasitic motions, stiffness, and natural frequency
requirements, etc., are conducted in Section 7 by means of the particle swarm opti-
mization (PSO) method along with the CPM performances validated through the
FEA. Finally, some concluding remarks are summarized in Section 8.
2 Architecture Description of a 3-PRC CPM
The original 3-PRCCPMcomposed of exure hinges is illustrated in Fig. 1. The CPM
consists of a mobile platform, a xed base, and three limbs with identical kinematic
structure. Each limb connects the xed base to the mobile platform by one exure
prismatic (P) hinge, two exure revolute (R) hinges, and another passive exure P
joint in sequence, where the passive P joint is a parallelogram structure involving
four exure R hinges. The rst P joint within each limb is equivalent to a leaf spring,
which is xed at the base and actuated by a linear actuator. Thus, each limb is a PRRP
kinematic linkage indeed. It is observed that the axes of the last R and P joints are
parallel to each other, and the combined effect of these two joints is analogy to a
cylindrical (C) joint. Hence, the mobile platform can be viewed to be attached to the
base by three identical PRC limbs.
For a 3-PRC parallel manipulator with conventional mechanical joints, it has been
shown that such an overconstraint mechanism can act as a translational manipu-
lator with some certain geometric conditions satised [16]: briey, the axes of the
R and C joints within the same limb are parallel to each other. Due to the equiva-
lent kinematic architecture, the proposed CPM possesses three translational DOF.
Moreover, in order to generate a cuboid shape workspace of the manipulator, the
three actuated P joints are arranged in an orthogonal manner. With a proper end-
effector mounted on the mobile platform or a mobile platform located under a speci-
ed microscope, the CPM is expected to nd its way into three-dimensional micro/
nano scale positioning manipulation.
The exure hinge with right-circular notch type is adopted since it possesses
the smallest center-shift compared to other types. As far as the linear actuator is
Fig. 2 Flowchart of the
CPM design
Performance
Requirement
Architecture
Design/Selection
Actuator/Sensor
Material/
Flexure Hinge

Parasitic Motion Suppression
Stiffness Enhancement
Stress Stiffening Elimination
Displacement Amplifier
Buckling Elimination
Compact Structure
Structure Improvement
Dimension Optimization
Performance Evaluation
Satisfied?
No
Yes
Prototype Fabrication
Experimental Test

concerned, the piezoelectric actuator (PZT) is selected to drive the CPM due to its
major advantages of large blocking force, high stiffness, fast response, and compact
size. Whereas compared with other types of linear actuators, the main drawback of
PZT lies in its small travel stroke. If the stroke of the adopted PZT can not meet the
application requirements, a proper amplication mechanism will benet the design.
Moreover, a owchart of the CPM design is illustrated in Fig. 2, where the FEA
simulation instead of the experimental test can be adopted to evaluate the CPM
performances in the design stage so as to speed up the design process and reduce the
manufacture cost. Additionally, the analytical models for the CPM are indispensable
to implement an efcient dimension optimization. In accordance with the design
owchart, the structure improvement of the original 3-PRC CPM is carried out in
the following section.
3 Structure Improvement of a 3-PRC CPM
3.1 Design Modication Procedures
The original 3-PRC CPM as represented by one limb in Fig. 3a is modied in terms
of six steps as conducted below.
Step 1: Due to the three actuation axes do not intersect at one point, parasitic
moments and parasitic motions in succession will be generated when the
CPM is driven by the actuators. For instance, the moment M
x
exists if the
input force F
y
is exerted which produces a parasitic rotation
x
as indicated
in Fig. 3a. Therefore, the actuation axes of the three limbs are assembled
to intersect at one common point as shown in Fig. 3b, so as to eliminate or
reduce parasitic motions of the CPM.
Step 2: Intuitively, one leg is too slender to support the mobile platform. Hence, a
parallel RR leg is added to each limb to enhance the structure stiffness of
the CPM as described by Fig. 3c.
Step 3: For the original actuated exure P joint, the deection mainly comes from
the two exure leaves. Once actuated by PZT, the two leaves suffer from
additional axial loads in the direction vertical to the translation. The exerted
axial loads are the sources of stress stiffening phenomenon in the exure P
joint. It can be shown that stiffening phenomenon increases the actuation
stiffness of the exure P joint, which may reduce the output stroke of PZT
and the workspace of CPM correspondingly. Hence, in order to reduce
the effect of stress stiffening, the actuation P joint is modied as shown in
Fig. 3d, where the axial loads are avoided.
Step 4: Add the displacement amplication mechanism to enlarge the stroke of
PZT actuators. The main drawback of PZT is its limited stroke, which leads
to a small workspace of the CPM. In order to enlarge the CPM workspace,
the stroke of the PZT is amplied by using a lever amplication mechanism
as illustrated in Fig. 3e.
Step 5: Buckling may occur in the exure hinges once their axial loads are com-
pressive and sufcient large. An observation of one limb in Fig. 3a reveals
that when the PZT pushes the leaf-based P joint, the six exure hinges in
the limb all bear the axial compressive load. So, buckling phenomenon may
Fy
z
y
x
(a)
Original limb.
z
y
(b)
Step 1.
(c)
Step 2.
(d)
Step 3.
Fy
(e)
Step 4.
Fy
(f)
Step 5.
(g)
Step 6.
Fig. 3 Modication procedures of a 3-PRC CPM (ag)
arise as long as the load is large enough, which may lead to instability of the
CPM and also restricts the CPM workspace. In order to reduce buckling in
the CPM, the concept of reverse actuation is introduced. By inverting the
actuation direction, the exure hinges constructing the R and C joints in
one PRC limb are all suffer from axial tensile loads instead. And the notch
hinges in the actuation P joint do not bear only axial compressive loads
either. The only hinge under the compression state is the coupling exure
hinge between the PZT and the actuation P joint. If the coupling hinge is
replaced by a metallic ball with the point-contact manner instead, then the
Fig. 4 One limb of an
improved 3-PRC CPM
PZT
Mobile platform
P joint
R joint
R joint
C joint z
x
y
P joint
a
l
b
( ) O P
buckling will be fully excluded from the current CPM. Otherwise, we can
check the elastic buckling load of this single hinge by using the guidelines
elaborated in [17]. Moreover, in order to make full use of the limited space
to build up a compact CPM, the PZT is inserted into the amplication P
joint as depicted in Fig. 3f.
Step 6: In order to generate a more compact CPM, the limb architecture is further
improved as described in Fig. 3g, where the passive P joint is inserted
between the two passive R joints with a PRPR linkage generated instead.
Since the effect of the last P and R joints is also equivalent to a C joint as
depicted in Fig. 4, the resulting CPM can still be viewed as a 3-PRC CPM,
whose virtual prototype is shown in Fig. 5.
3.2 Performance Preview for the New CPM
In order to have a preview for the merits of the improved new 3-PRC CPM, both
the original and the current CPM are analyzed via the nonlinear statics analysis
in ANSYS software. For the sake of comparison, both the original and improved
CPM are created with the same dimensions as described in Table 1, where the
notch hinge parameters (t, r and w) are depicted in Fig. 6 and other parameters
refer to the distances between the centers of relevant notch hinges. In addition, the
Fig. 5 A virtual prototype of
the improved 3-PRC CPM
PZT
Mobile platform
Fixed hole
Limb 1
Limb 2
Limb 3
Fixed block
same large displacement (4 mm) is assigned as input of the CPM to have a more
apparent comparison of the two CPM performances. The corresponding loads can
be generated after the solution, and the output motion of the CPM can be monitored
as well.
The relationship between the input and output displacements for the two CPMs
is plotted in Fig. 7. It is found that with the same input displacements of linear
actuators, the ratio of output displacements between the modied and original CPM
is about 1.99. Thus, the CPM workspace volume has been enlarged by 1.99
3
7.9
times. Moreover, the force-displacement relationships of the two CPMs are shown
in Fig. 8, where the curve for the original CPM exhibits that the slope, i.e., the
actuation stiffness, grows from 437.2 N/mm to 620.6 N/mm as the increasing of the
input displacement due to the existence of stress stiffening. Whereas the actuation
Table 1 Main parameters
of the 3-PRC CPM
Parameter Value
Architectural parameters (mm)
a 129
b 66
l 103
l
1
48
l
2
24
l
3
92
r 5.0
t 0.5
w 16
CPM material parameters
Youngs modulus 113.8 GPa
Yield strength 880 Mpa
Poissons ratio 0.342
Density 4.43 g/cm
3
Fig. 6 Parameters of the
modied exure P joint
1
l
3
l
2
l
r
w
1
m
2
m
2
m
3
m
t 2
2
2
d
q =
2

2

2
d
2
e
y
z
Actuation
Right-cicular notch hinge
y
x
z
stiffness of the modied CPMalmost remains a constant of 136.0 N/mm, which means
that the stiffening phenomenon has been eliminated.
In addition, with the second P joints of the CPM driven, the parasitic motions
versus output displacements for the original and modied CPM are elaborated in
Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. It is seen that the parasitic motions of the modied CPM
are all smaller than those of the original CPM. Although the adopted amplication P
joint possesses a parasitic translation along the z-axis as shown in Fig. 6, the parasitic
motion of the CPM in this direction (u
z
= 7.3 m) is very small and less than 10%
motion of the original CPM (u
z
= 78.7 m). Besides, the parasitic displacement u
x
has been signicantly reduced from 559.2 m to 2.7 m, and the parasitic rotations
around the x and z axes due to the non-intersection of the original three actuation
axes are reduced to 0.0087 and 0.0145 degree which are only 46% and 8% of those in
the original CPM, respectively.
Fig. 7 Inputoutput
displacement relationship
of the two CPMs
0 1 2 3 4
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Input displacement (mm)
O
u
t
p
u
t

d
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

(
m
m
)

Original CPM
Modified CPM
Fig. 8 Force-displacement
relationships of the two CPMs
0 1 2 3 4
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Deflection (mm)
F
o
r
c
e

(
N
)

Original CPM
Modified CPM
Regarding the critical load (P
cr
) that can induce elastic buckling to the modied
CPM, it can be roughly assessed with the consideration of the equation [17]:
P
cr
=

2
EI
min
l
2
cr
(1)
where I
min
= wt
3
/12 is the minimum moment of inertia for the coupling notch hinge,
and l
cr
= 2 2r denotes the critical length of the hinge which is taken as a xed-
free type of column. The critical load predicted by (1) is 468 N which corresponds
to a constant rectangular cross section, one-sensitivity-axis exure hinge under axial
compression conditions. For the right-circular notch hinge, the cross section is not
constant, and the average moment of inertia is larger than I
min
. As a consequence,
the critical load for elastic buckling of the modied 3-PRC CPM is much larger than
Fig. 9 Relationship between
the output motion and
parasitic motion of the
original 3-PRC TPM
0 1 2 3 4
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
Output displacement (mm)
P
a
r
a
s
i
t
i
c

m
o
t
i
o
n

x translation (mm)
z translation (mm)
x rotation (degree)
z rotation (degree)
improved 3-PRC TPM
0 2 4 6 8
0.05
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
P
a
r
a
s
i
t
i
c

m
o
t
i
o
n

x translation (mm)
z translation (mm)
x rotation (degree)
z rotation (degree)
468 N. Taking into account the actuation stiffness value (136 N/mm) of the CPM,
the critical load 468 N can only be reached by the actuation with a displacement of
3.44 mm. It follows that the actuation value leading to elastic buckling of the CPM is
larger than 3.44 mm, which is safe enough for the CPM driven by the PZT actuator
whose stroke is usually less than 1 mm.
The preview of the CPM performance reveals that the modied CPM possesses a
larger workspace and less parasitic displacements than the original one along with the
unfavorable stiffening and buckling phenomena eliminated. The CPM performances
in terms of kinematics, statics and dynamics are evaluated in details for a multi-
objective architecture optimization conducted in the following discussions.
4 Kinematics, Parasitic Motion, and Workspace Assessment
In the early design stage of a 3-PRC CPM, the main objective is to establish a sim-
ple yet accurate enough model to assess the CPM performance by resorting to com-
puter simulations. Since the rotation center shifted value of the exure hinge with
a right-circular shape is smaller than the hinges with other shapes, we assume that
the rotation center is not changed during the operation of the CPM. Then, the
pseudo-rigid-body (PRB) model [18] is utilized to facilitate the design and evaluation
of CPM.
4.1 Mobility Determination
With the mechanism topology identied and each exure hinge replaced by a revo-
lute joint and a torsional spring, the PRB model of the CPMcan be easily developed.
And limb 2 is shown in Fig. 11.
As is well-known, a planar parallelogram (Pa) joint has only one translational
DOF. So, each Pa joint of the CPM can be considered as a 1-DOF P joint pair with
two links connected to each side of it. Hence, each limb of the modied CPM is
equivalent to a PRPR structure as illustrated in Fig. 11. Furthermore, since the effect
Fig. 11 PRB model of one
limb of the modied CPM
z
x
y
( ) O P
P
R
P
R
a
l
of the last P and R joints is equivalent to a C joint, it still can be seen as a 3-PRC
parallel mechanism, which possesses three translational DOF as can be shown by
resorting to the screw theory (see [16] for more details).
4.2 Kinematics Modeling
Assign d = [d
1
d
2
d
3
]
T
be the vector of three actuated P joint variables, and
q = [q
1
q
2
q
3
]
T
be the vector for the displacements of three PZT. Since the adopted
lever mechanism possesses an amplication ratio of A
p
=
l
1
l
2
= 2 as illustrated in
Fig. 6, we have q =
1
2
d.
Referring to the limb parameters as indicated in Fig. 6, we can observe that the
difference between parameters a and l is only a small offset. For simplicity, we replace
the value of a with l in the kinematics analysis. In addition, a xed reference frame
O is assigned as the initial position of the center point P for the mobile platform.
Thus, the position of the mobile platform with respect to the reference frame can be
described by a position vector p = [x y z]
T
of the reference point P. With reference
to the vectors representation shown in Fig. 12, a vector-loop equation can be written
for the i-th chain:
ll
i0
= L
i
d
i
d
i0
(2)
with the notation of L
i
= p + b
i
a
i
d
i
d
i0
, where l is the leg length and l
i0
is the
unit vector along the leg direction
C
i
B
i
; d
i
represents the linear displacement of the
i-th actuated P joint with d
i0
denoting the unit vector along the actuated direction;
a
i
and b
i
represent the position vector of point A
i
and B
i
at the home position,
respectively.
In view of (2), a necessary calculation leads to the inverse displacement solutions:
d
i
= d
T
i0
L
i
+
_
(d
T
i0
L
i
)
2
L
T
i
L
i
+l
2
(3)
Fig. 12 Vectors
representation for the CPM
z
x
y
y
O
O
P
P
B
i
B
i
A
i
C
i
C
i
A
i
p p
d
i
d
i0
b
i
l l
i0
a
i
which can be expanded into the following forms:
d
1
= x l +
_
l
2
y
2
z
2
(4a)
d
2
= y l +
_
l
2
z
2
x
2
(4b)
d
3
= z l +
_
l
2
x
2
y
2
(4c)
Assume that the CPM is away from singularities (which is true for the CPM with
micro motion), three velocity equations can be obtained by differentiating (2) with
respect to time, which are then assembled in the matrix form:
d = J p (5)
where p = [ x y z]
T
denotes the vector of linear velocities for the mobile platform,
and the Jacobian matrix is
J =
_
_
_
1
y
J
1
z
J
1
x
J
2
1
z
J
2
x
J
3
y
J
3
1
_
_
(6)
with J
1
= x +l d
1
, J
2
= y +l d
2
, and J
3
= z +l d
3
.
Considering that the units for the mobile position (x, y, and z) and actuated joint
variable (d
i
) of the CPM are micrometers, whereas the leg length l is in unit of
millimeter, we can deduce that x, y, z, d
i
l. And then, the Jacobian matrix can be
approximately written as
J I (7)
which indicates that
d
1
x d
2
y d
3
z (8)
The above kinematics analysis exhibit that the designed CPM possesses a nearly
decoupled translational motion.
4.3 Parasitic Motion Analysis
The explicit expression for the CPM parasitic deections is necessary for the sake
of alleviating them. In view of the symmetric architecture of the three limbs of the
CPM, we can consider the case that the second limb solely is driven by a PZT with
an input displacement d
2
while the other two limbs remain zero displacement input.
Then, one parasitic displacement (e
1
) along the x direction is caused by limb 1, and
two parasitic displacements (e
2
, e
3
) along the z direction can be induced by limbs
2 and 3, respectively. Referring to Figs. 6 and 13, we can observe that the parasitic
displacements subject to the three limbs can be calculated by:
e
1
= l
_
1 cos(
2
)
_
(9)
e
2
= l
1
_
1 cos(
2
)
_
(10)
e
3
= a
_
1 cos(
2
)
_
(11)
where
2
= sin
1
(d
2
/l) d
2
/l (12)
2
= sin
1
(d
2
/l
1
) d
2
/l
1
(13)
2
= sin
1
(d
2
/a) d
2
/a (14)
Fig. 13 Parasitic
displacements due to
limbs 1 and 3
1
e
l
2

2
d
Limb 1
x
y y
z
a
3
e
Limb 3
2

Taking into account the directions of the parasitic motion, we can see that both
e
2
and e
3
are along the negative z-axis. According to the magnitude relationship
between e
2
and e
3
, three cases in terms of e
2
> e
3
, e
2
= e
3
, and e
2
< e
3
may occur.
For the sake of eliminating the parasitic motion of the CPM in z direction, e
2
and e
3
should be along the opposite direction with the same magnitude (e
2
= e
3
). That is, if
e
3
is along z and e
2
is in z-axis direction with the same size, then the two opposite
motions compensate for the CPM parasitic motion in the z direction. Therefore, we
adopt the manner as shown in Fig. 14 to mount the three limbs of the CPM at the
xing blocks.
Moreover, in view of (10), (11), (13), and (14), we can deduce that the relationship
of e
2
= e
3
leads to
l
1
= a (15)
Another factor that may cause parasitic motions of the CPMis the adopted exure
hinges themselves. Although the employed right-circular notch hinge has better
accuracy than other types, the deviation of rotation center and the compliances in
other working directions still exist. Referring to the exure hinge indicated in Fig. 6,
we can see that the rotation around the x-axis (with stiffness K
x
M
x
) is the working
direction of exure hinge. However, the hinges within legs also bear loads along the
z-axis (with stiffness K
u
z
F
z
) and moments around the y-axis (with stiffness K
y
M
y
)
directions during the operation. In order to make the exure hinge more sensitive
to the rotation about the working direction and more insensitive to the passive
directions, the following two stiffness ratios should be made as small as possible:
1
=
K
x
M
x
K
u
z
F
z
(16)
2
=
K
x
M
x
K
y
M
y
(17)
Fig. 14 CAD model of the
nal CPM
Based upon the approximate stiffness models in [19], the two stiffness ratios can be
expanded in terms of the hinge parameters:
1
=
t
2
9
_
2
2 +
_
t
r
_
(18)
2
=
12t
2
9w
2
_
2
2 +
_
t
r
_
(19)
The above equations are valid in the ranges of
0 <
t
2r
0.2 (20)
so as to keep the deviations with respect to the true values within 10% [20].
4.4 Workspace Determination
The CPM workspace can be determined by considering the travel range of PZT and
rotation limit of exure hinges at the same time. Assume that the PZT stroke is Q,
i.e., q
i
[0, Q], then in view of (8) and amplication ratio of the lever mechanism,
the CPM workspace can be theoretically calculated as V = (2Q)
3
provided that the
stresses caused by the exure hinge rotations remain within the yield strength of the
material.
For a notch hinge bearing a pure bending moment around its working direction,
the maximumangular displacement
max
arises when the maximumstress
max
, which
occurs at the outermost surface of the thinnest portion of the hinge, reaches to the
allowed stress
a
that is less than the yield strength
y
due to an assigned safety factor
n
a
(1, ), i.e.,
max
=
a
=
y
/n
a
(21)
The relationship between the maximum stress and maximum rotation of the
exure hinge can be calculated as [20]:
max
=
E(1 +)
9/20
2
f ()
max
(22)
where =
t
2r
is the dimensionless geometry factor with a valid range of 0 < < 2.3,
and f () is a dimensionless compliance factor derived in [20] as:
f () =
1
2 +
2
_
3 +4 +2
2
(1 +)(2 +
2
)
+
6(1 +)
(2 +
2
)
3/2
tan
1
_
_
2 +
__
(23)
Once the PZT for driving the CPM is selected, its stroke Q is a constant. Substi-
tuting the rotation angles described by (12), (13), and (14) with d
2
= Q into (22)
allows the generation of the relationships:
inf(l, l
1
, a)
E(1 +)
9/20
n
a
Q
2
f ()
y
(24)
which provides a guideline for the design of the CPM dimensions without the risk of
inelastic deformation.
5 Statics Analysis
5.1 Static Forces Generation
Differing fromthe statics of a conventional parallel manipulator, the statics of a CPM
solves the actuation forces which are expected to balance both the external forces
applied on the mobile platform and the internal forces arising from the deformations
of exure elements constructing the CPM.
Assume that an external force F = [F
x
F
y
F
z
]
T
is exerted on the mobile platform
of the CPM, which brings a displacement u = [u
x
u
y
u
z
]
T
of the CPMalong the three
translational directions at an equilibrium state. Let the output displacements of the
three PZT be denoted by the vector q. In view of the kineto-statics duality property
of the manipulator, the external force F can be balanced by the actuation force:
f
ex
= J
T
F (25)
As far as the internal forces are concerned, referring to Fig. 6, we consider the
CPM displacement u
y
along the y direction as an example. From (8), we derive
that d
2
= u
y
.
5.1.1 Internal Forces in Limb 1
Within the limb 1, the deformation u
y
is mainly suffered by the passive P joint. It is
observed that all of the four notch hinges rotate with the same angle
2
. Assign K
2y
be the stiffness of the passive P joint in y direction, then the induced potential energy
in the P joint due to elastic deections can be computed by
P
1
=
1
2
K
1y
d
2
2
= 4
1
2
k
2
2
(26)
where k is the approximate rotation stiffness of the right-circular exure hinge
around the working direction as expressed by
k =
2Ewt
2.5
9r
0.5
(27)
and the rotation angle
2
(see Fig. 15) is described by (12).
Then, in view of (26), the internal elastic force due to limb 2 becomes:
f
1y
= K
1y
d
2
(28)
where
K
1y
=
8Ewt
2.5
9r
0.5
l
2
(29)
5.1.2 Internal Forces in Limb 2 and Limb 3
In limb 2, the deformation u
y
is mainly supported by the actuation P joint which
includes ve notch hinges as illustrated in Fig. 6. While in limb 3, the deformation
u
y
is mainly carried by the two passive R-R legs involving four exure hinges.
Fig. 15 Convergence
processes of the PSO
optimization
0 500 1000 1500
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0.14
0.16
Epoch
g
B
e
s
t
ps=40, Inertia wt=0.4, Common PSO, 5D, cost=0.061652
By the potential energy expression, the stiffness K
2y
and K
3y
of limbs 2 and 3 in
the y direction can be respectively calculated as:
K
2y
=
10Ewt
2.5
9r
0.5
l
2
2
, K
3y
=
8Ewt
2.5
9r
0.5
a
2
(30)
which allows the generation of the internal elastic forces subjected to limb 2 and limb
3 as follows.
f
2y
= K
2y
d
2
, f
3y
= K
3y
d
2
(31)
Therefore, the internal forces of the whole CPM corresponding to the displace-
ment u
y
of the mobile platform can be computed by:
f
y
= f
1y
+ f
2y
+ f
3y
= K
q
q
2
(32)
where
K
q
=
4Ewt
2.5
9r
0.5
_
4
l
2
+
5
l
2
1
+
4
a
2
_
(33)
which describes the relationship between the actuation force and displacement of the
CPM, i.e., the actuator stiffness.
5.1.3 Statics of the Whole CPM
In the same way, the internal forces owing to displacements u
x
and u
z
can also be
calculated, which can be balanced by the actuation forces:
f
in
= K
q
q (34)
where the 33 diagonal stiffness matrix K
q
= diag{K
q
}.
With the consideration of (25) and (34) at the same time, we can see that the
following balance forces need to be created by actuators under statics condition:
f = J
T
F + K
q
q (35)
which provides a guideline for the selection of actuators in terms of the output force.
5.2 Simulation Results and Discussions
Concerning a 3-PRC CPM with parameters described in Table 1, assume that a force
F = [0 8.1 0]
T
N is applied on the mobile platform which requires a displacement
q = [0 0.2 0]
T
mm of the linear actuators to arrive at an equilibrium state. The
actuation force can be calculated via (35) as f
cal
= [0 27.55 0]
T
N.
The FEAis performed with ANSYS to validate the derived statics equation. In the
simulation, the force F and input displacement q are assigned on the mobile platform
and the second actuation P joint of the CPM, respectively. After the simulation, the
actuation force can be determined as f
sim
= [0 30.74 0]
T
N. We can observe that
calculated actuation force f
cal
is very closed to the one f
sim
generated by the FEA
approach. And the deviation of the calculated value with respect to the simulation
result is 10.4%. The deviation mainly comes from the assumption of the PRB
model concept, which can be reduced by adopting a fully nonlinear modeling of the
CPM instead.
It should be noted that, in the above statics analysis for the 3-PRC CPM, only the
external forces applied on the mobile platform are considered, which induce internal
forces due to the elastic deection of exure hinges. The external forces and induced
internal forces are balanced by the forces created by the three PZT. Moreover, the
mobile platform of the spatial 3-PRC CPM may suffer from external moments in
addition to the forces. The external loads should be balanced by the three actuation
force created by the PZT and constrained wrenches exerted by the exure elements.
The wrenches can introduce deformations of exure hinges in directions other than
their working axes, which may even enlarge the parasitic rotation of the mobile
platform. The said deformations can be calculated by resorting to a full stiffness
modeling of the CPM as proposed in the literature [21, 22].
6 Dynamics Evaluation
6.1 Dynamics Modeling of the 3-PRC CPM
In the current research, the Lagranges equation is adopted for the dynamics mod-
eling of a 3-PRC CPM. The variables q = [q
1
q
2
q
3
]
T
are chosen as the generalized
coordinates. Additionally, we assume that the kinetic energies are induced by the
rigid rods connecting the exure hinges and potential energies introduced by the
elastic deformations of exure hinges and gravity of the CPM.
By expressing the kinetic (T) and elastic potential (U) energies of the entire CPM
in terms of the selected coordinates and their derivatives, the Lagrangian function
(L = T U) for the CPM can be generated. For the reason of compactness, the
derivation processes are omitted here, more details can be found in relevant works
[23] of the authors. The Lagrangian equation of motion can be derived based on the
generalized coordinates q according to
d
dt

L
q
i
L
q
i
= F
i
(i = 1, 2, 3) (36)
where q
i
denotes the i-th generalized coordinate and F
i
is the i-th actuation force.
The generated dynamic equations take on the following form:
M q + Kq + G = F (37)
where M = diag{M} is the mass matrix, K = diag{K} is the stiffness matrix, G =
[0 G 0]
T
and F = [F
1
F
2
F
3
]
T
denote the gravity force vector and actuation force
vector, respectively, with the following notations:
M = 4m
0
+4m
1
+
8
3
m
2
+m
3
+
40
3
m
4
(38)
K =
2Ewt
2.5
9r
0.5
_
5
l
2
2
+
16
l
2
+
16
a
2
_
(39)
G = 2(m
0
+3m
1
+6m
2
+3m
3
+6m
4
)g (40)
where m
0
is the mass of the mobile platform, m
4
denotes the mass of one R-R leg,
and other masses are indicated in Fig. 6.
Therefore, the actuation force F
i
for the i-th limb can be derived in view of (37).
It is noticeable that Lagrange multipliers do not appear in the established dynamic
equation since no constraint equations are adopted in the dynamic modeling. In
addition, the consideration of gravity effects is necessary once the CPMmotion along
the y direction is concerned, and other forces due to the interacting between the
end-effector and the environment should be taken into account as well for practical
applications.
6.2 Modal Analysis and Simulation Validations
The modal analysis is necessary for the design of the manipulators as far as the
control frequency is concerned. Commonly, to avoid exciting the structural oscil-
lation and resonance of the CPM system, the natural frequency of the mechanism
( f
mech
) in a servo control system should be no less than two times higher than the
frequency of the driving system ( f
ctrl
). It follows that a higher natural frequency of
the mechanism allows a higher control frequency of the driving system. Based on the
theory of vibrations, the dynamic equation of undamped free vibration of the CPM
system can be expressed as:
M q + Kq = 0 (41)
Besides, the modal equation describing free vibration of the system can be obtained
as follows:
(K
i
M)
i
= 0 (42)
where
i
and
i
are the eigenvalue and eigenvector associating with the i-th mode
shape of the system. The condition of non-zero solutions for (42) can be derived by
| K
i
M| = 0 (43)
which allows the calculation of the eigenvalue, i.e.,
i
=
2
i
with
i
denoting the
natural cyclic frequency of the system. Then, the natural frequency can be computed
as f
i
=
1
2
i
.
For instance, with the kinematic and physical parameters elaborated in Table 1,
the natural frequency of the 3-PRC CPM can be calculated by
f
mech
=
1
2
_
K
M
= 12.6 Hz (44)
Moreover, the modal analysis of the 3-PRCCPMwith the parameters described in
Table 1 is performed with ANSYS. Both the natural frequency and the correspond-
ing mode shapes are derived by the simulation, which exhibits that the rst three
vibration shapes are translations along the three axes of the frame with almost the
same natural frequency. The rst natural frequency (12.4 Hz) obtained by ANSYS
agrees well with the value (12.6 Hz) calculated fromthe dynamic model, which partly
veries the validity of the performed dynamic modeling for a 3-PRC CPM.
7 Multi-Objective Dimension Optimization
A review of the above analyses reveals that the performances of the CPM in terms
of kinematics, statics and dynamics are all dependent on its architectural parameters.
Consequently, in order to fabricate a CPM for practical application, it is a key step
to determine its dimensions by taking into account its performances simultaneously.
To increase the natural frequency of the CPM, a lighter material, i.e., Al 7075 alloy
(density = 2.8110
3
kg/m
3
, Youngs modulus = 71.7 GPa, yield strength = 503 Mpa,
Poissons ratio = 0.33) is adopted, and the CPM mobile platform weight is reduced
by removing unnecessary masses. In addition, to make a tradeoff between the stroke
and resolution of the PZT, one type of PZT, namely, P-178.50 produced by the
Physik Instrumente (PI), Inc., is selected to drive the 3-PRCCPM. The PZT actuator
possesses a stroke of Q = 80 m with a resolution of 1.6 nm. Additionally, the true
values for the CPM stiffness and natural frequency are taken to be those generated
from the FEA. Considering the differences between the calculated values and FEA
results for the stiffness and natural frequency are within 15%, a compensation
factor = 0.85 is adopted in the optimization process to compensate for the derived
analytical models.
7.1 Optimization Statement
With the aim of enhancing the accuracy property of the CPM, the optimal design
problem can be stated as follows:
Variables to be optimized: a, l
1
, t, r and w.
Minimize: Parasitic motions (e

1
, e
2
, e
3
,
1
,
2
)
Subject to:
1. Actuation stiffness value K
q
/ K
PZT
2. Natural frequency 2 f
ctrl
f
mech
f
max
/15
3. Parasitic motion elimination ensured by (15)
4. Free of plastic deections guaranteed by (24) with a safety factor n
a
= 1.25
5. Accuracy valid range ensured by (20)
6. Parameter ranges: 60 mm a 160 mm, 60 mm l
1
160 mm, 0.3 mm
t 2 mm, 2 mm r 6 mm, and 10 mm w 16 mm
In this optimization, ve parameters (n = [a, l
1
, t, r, w]
T
) need to be optimized
since the parameter l can be determined with an offset from the parameter a and
other parameters have little effects on the CPM performances. For the sake of mini-
mizing the parasitic motions, the objective function for minimization is taken as:
f (n) = e
2
1
+e
2
2
+e
2
3
+
2
1
+
2
2
= l
2
_
1 cos
_
2Q
l
__
2
+l
2
1
_
1 cos
_
2Q
l
1
__
2
+a
2
_
1 cos
_
2Q
a
__
2
+
t
4
81
_
2
2 +
_
t
r
_
2
+
144t
4
81w
4
_
2
2 +
_
t
r
_
2
(45)
As far as the constraint conditions are concerned, the actuation stiffness of the
CPM should not exceed the stiffness of the adopted PZT, i.e., K
PZT
= 17.6 N/m.
The natural frequency should be no less than two times of the frequency of the
control system which is taken to be f
ctrl
= 18 Hz in this case, and be no greater
than one fteenth of the maximum sampling rate f
max
= 1000 Hz of the numerical
control so as to avoid exciting resonance of the system. Meanwhile, the CPM
should be designed with the elimination of some parasitic motions and plastic failure
phenomena for the safety reason. Besides that, since the CPM will be manufactured
by the wire EDM(electrical discharge machining) process, the thinnest portion of the
notch hinge should be no less than 0.3 mm corresponding the maximum tolerance of
0.01 mm. Additionally, the minimum value of the distance a is restricted by the
length of the adopted PZT (68 mm) with the addition of a proper assembling space,
and the upper bounds for design variables are all limited so as to generate a compact
manipulator.
7.2 PSO Optimization and Results
Compared to the genetic algorithm (GA), the PSO has no evolutionary operators
such as crossover and mutation. Thus, from the viewpoint of programming, the
advantages for PSO are ease to implement and few parameters to adjust. In the
current ve-dimensional optimization problem, a particle can be described by X
i
=
(x
i1
, x
i2
, x
i3
, x
i4
, x
i5
) with the particle velocity V
i
= (v
i1
, v
i2
, v
i3
, v
i4
, v
i5
), which cor-
responds to a set of the CPM design variables (a, l
1
, t, r, w). In the n-th generation,
there are N particles pop
n
= (X
1
, X
2
, , X
N
), where the population size N is set
to be 40 for the current problem. The inertia weight w determines the impact of
previous velocities on the current velocity, and the initial and nal values are selected
as 0.9 and 0.4, respectively, where 1000 epoches are allowed to take from the initial
Table 2 Optimized dimensions of a 3-PRC CPM
Parameter
a l
1
t r w
Value (mm) 120.00 120.00 1.19 2.97 10.00
value to the nal one linearly. In addition, the local and global acceleration constants
are assigned as c
1
= 2.0 and c
2
= 2.0, respectively. And the swarm is manipulated by
the equations [24]:
V
i
(k +1) = wV
i
(k) +c
1
r
1
_
P
i
(k) X
i
(k)
_
+c
2
r
2
_
P
g
(k) X
i
(k)
_
(46)
X
i
(k +1) = X
i
(k) + V
i
(k +1) (47)
where r
1
and r
2
are random numbers uniformly distributed between 0 and 1, and
the particle index i = 1, 2, , N. As far as the termination criterion is concerned,
three items are set. One criterion is the maximumnumber of iterations (3000) for the
optimization procedure, another one is the minimum global error gradient (1.0E-6)
which is the error between two neighboring particles with the best tness values,
and the third one is the maximum number of iterations without error change, that is
chosen as 500.
The optimization is implemented with MATLAB via a PSO toolbox developed
by [25], and the PSO is initialized with random start values within the search space.
Ten independent runs are carried out on a personal computer, and one convergence
process is plotted in Fig. 15. Although the PSO has the stochastic property, i.e., it
makes randomchoices, each run converges to almost the same value for the objective
function due to the reason that the selected termination criteria are sufcient. The
optimized CPM dimensions are described in Table 2.
7.3 Performance Validation with FEA
The FEA is accomplished on a virtual prototype of the optimized CPM with the
above parameters. As shown in Fig. 16, the 20-node element SOLID186 is adopted
Fig. 16 FEM of the optimized
3-PRC CPM
improved 3-PRC TPM
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
0
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02
P
a
r
a
s
i
t
i
c

m
o
t
i
o
n

x translation (mm)
z translation (mm)
x rotation (degree)
y rotation (degree)
z rotation (degree)
to create the nite element models of the three limbs, while the mobile platform is
meshed using the 10-node element SOLID187 to enhance the calculation efciency.
And the six xing holes are constrained in the simulation. The results show that the
actuator stiffness of the CPM is 128.6 N/mm, which is far less than that provided by
the adopted PZT actuator. Moreover, the CPM possesses a high natural frequency
of 35.0 Hz, and a workspace range of 141141141 m
3
with a resolution of 2.8 nm.
Besides, the parasitic motions are shown in Fig. 17, which indicates that the maximum
values are u
x
= 10.9 m, u
z
= 0.6 m,
x
= 0.002 degree,
y
= 0.001 degree, and
z
= 0.019 degree, respectively. We can observe that when the CPM translates
along the y direction, its parasitic translation in the z direction has been greatly
reduced to
0.6
141
= 0.4%. While the parasitic translation along the x-axis is
10.9
141
= 7.7%,
which is relatively large and can be compensated by control the PZT actuating in
the x direction. Additionally, the parasitic rotations around the three axes are all
not signicant and can be neglected. So, the 3-PRC CPM can be seen as a partially
decoupled XYZ micromanipulator. And the FEM results also validate the effective-
ness of the conducted dimension optimization for the 3-PRC CPM.
8 Conclusion
The structure improvement and dimension optimization for a 3-PRC CPM are
carried out in details in this paper. The previous version of CPM has been modied
in considerations of limb architecture assembly, actuation joint type, actuation direc-
tion, and displacement amplication mechanism adoption, etc., which results in a
new CPM with improved performances. The FEA results show that the workspace
volume of the improved CPM is enlarged by 7.9 times along with the parasitic
motions reduced tremendously, and both stiffening and buckling phenomena have
been eliminated. Hence, the new 3-PRC CPM is more suitable for the application in
micro/nano scale manipulation.
Furthermore, the mobility of this new CPM is determined by resorting to the
screw theory, while the kinematics are solved based on PRB model approach. The
CPM workspace subjected to elastic limits of exure hinges are determined and
the parasitic motions are formulated analytically. Meanwhile, both statics and dy-
namics models of the CPM are derived and then veried through the FEA. Based
upon the derived models, the optimal dimension design with the goal of minimizing
the CPM parasitic motions subjected to the stiffness and natural frequency require-
ments under other parameter constraints are conducted by means of the particle
swarm optimization. The FEA results show that the optimized CPM possesses
a partially decoupled translation with other performances suited well with the
requirements.
The main contribution of this research is the design improvement of a new CPM
with the generation of its mathematical models and optimal dimensions considering
kinematics, statics, and dynamics performances. The results presented in this paper
provide a sound base for the hardware development of a 3-PRC CPM for such appli-
cations as biological cell injection, micro components assembly and so on, which
are planned in our future investigations. In addition, other approaches to enhance
the CPM precision and experimental studies to verify the CPM accuracy will be
attempted as well.
Acknowledgements The authors appreciate the fund support from the research committee of
University of Macau under Grant No. RG-UL/07-08S/Y1/LYM/FST and Macao Science and
Technology Development Fund under Grant No. 069/2005/A.
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Design and Optimization of An XYZ Parallel Micromanipulator With Flexure Hinges

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J Intell Robot Syst (2009) 55:377402

J Intell Robot Syst (2009) 55:377402 381

Minimize: Parasitic motions (e

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