Abstract
Recently, mounting technology for small electronic chip parts becomes increasingly important for portable devices and MEMS devices. Multi-axial linear stages inside conventional surface mounting technology instruments are much larger and heavier than tiny chip parts. Because the linear stages require linear guides, bottom stage must carry upper stages including their linear guides. Recently, we have developed light-weight holonomic inchworm mobile mechanism which is composed of a pair of electromagnetic legs and four piezoelectric actuators. Because it requires expensive ferromagnetic working table with well-polished surfaces, its positioning range economically limited less than 0.4m^2. In this research, we describe newly-designed alternate-tripod-type inchworm mechanism driven by piezoelectric actuators with displacement magnification mechanism, so that it can move on the non-magnetic surfaces. The mechanism is also designed to have 6 load cells for detecting vertical force between each leg and floor for balancing then- frictional forces.
