Design and analysis of a large-range micro-gripper

This paper presents the design and analysis of a new large-range micro-gripper which is constructed using flexure hinges. The gripper is actuated by only one piezoelectric stack actuator (PSA) and the output of the grip arm is approximately rectilinear movement, because the displacement of nonworking direction is extremely small. In order to achieve a large gripping range, a dual-stage amplifier is designed to magnify the stroke of PSA actuator. Analytical models are developed to facilitate the parametric design of the gripper structure. Finite-element analysis simulation is carried out to verify the gripper performance. A prototype gripper is developed for experimental testing. Experimental results show that the maximum output displacement of the device is 365.2 micrometers for one gripper tip under 100 V driving voltage.