Parametric design and analysis of a new 3D compliant manipulator for micromanipulation

This paper introduces a parametric design of a new 3D compliant parallel manipulator based on pantograph linkage for micro/nano applications. Furthermore, the modal shapes and natural frequencies analysis are carried out versus the flexure joint parameters which are a crucial point for the controller selection/design and geometry optimization. The new compliant manipulator provides decoupled 3DOF translational motion with fixed orientation of the end effector and it has significantly high workspace to size ratio. The modified manipulator aims to enlarge the workspace by enhancing the values of magnification factors of input motion and by reducing the parasitic motion and geometric stiffening of the original manipulator. The main parameters that affect the performance of the compliant manipulator are determined based on the generated results of finite element analysis which is performed using ANSYS software. The results have successfully demonstrated the improvements of the proposed manipulator in terms of workspace size, magnification factors, joint stiffening and parasitic motions.