Novel design of a 3-PUU spatial compliant parallel micromanipulator for nanomanipulation

According to the requirement of nanomanipulation, a new three-prismatic-universal-universal (3-PUU) spatial compliant parallel micromanipulator (CPM) utilizing flexure joints has been proposed in this paper. The system is configurated by a proper selection of hardware and analyzed based upon the established pseudo-rigid-body (PRB) model. The position and velocity kinematic modelings have been performed in details afterwards. In view of the physical constraints imposed by piezoelectric actuators and flexure hinges, the CPM's workspace range is determined analytically. Particularly, it is illustrated that the CPM possesses a fairly regular like workspace with a maximum cuboid defined as usable workspace inscribed and one isotropic configuration involved. Furthermore, the architecture design of the CPM with the goal of achieving a maximum usable workspace is carried out, and the dexterity performance over the workspace has been verified. Simulation results reveal that the compact CPM can perform a high dexterous manipulation within the usable workspace.