Design of a Piezoelectric-Driven Microgripper With Three Working Modes

This article presents the conceptual design of a novel reconfigurable piezoelectric-driven microgripper to obtain both excellent static and dynamic performance for complex micromanipulation. For the first time, a flexure-based compliant microgripper is designed to realize three working modes. The analytical model of the microgripper is established based on the beam deformation theory and pseudo-rigid-body modeling approach. The multiobjective optimization is performed based on the response surface methodology to determine the structural parameters of the microgripper. A finite-element model-based simulation study is implemented to evaluate the gripper's static and dynamic performance. Moreover, a prototype of the microgripper has been fabricated for experimental testing. The results reveal that the microgripper obtains a large displacement amplification ratio of 55.17 in mode I, a high natural frequency of 838.09 Hz in mode II, and a balanced performance in mode III. The micromanipulation capability of the microgripper has been demonstrated by executing gripping–holding–releasing operations of various tiny objects.