A Rapidly Prototyped 2-axis Positioning Stage for Microassembly using Large Displacement Compliant Mechanisms

Abstract— Compliant mechanisms provide an attractive alternative to conventional rigid mechanisms in the design of ultra low-cost precision positioning systems. The desirable performance characteristics of these mechanisms including freedom from backlash, long life, light weight, and ease of fabrication/assembly make them an ideal solution to the problem of inexpensive precision positioning for microassembly. This paper presents a design for a 2 axis precision positioning system which makes use of large displacement compliant mechanisms, a room temperature and pressure molding fabrication process, commodity hardware, and a piecewise linear interpolation compensation scheme to achieve positioning performance suitable for automated assembly of sub-centimeter robotic and mechatronic devices.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Aaron M. Hoover, Srinath Avadhanula, Richard E. Groff, Ronald S. Fearing
• Keywords: Compliant Mechanisms, ICRA 2006, Positioning System, Precision Positioning Systems, Robotics