A Digital Actuation System for Micro Parallel Manipulators

Abstract

In order to develop high precision micro parallel manipulators, a concept of micro parallel manipulators with digital actuation system has been proposed. The digital actuation system is composed of a series of bi-stable-pair mechanisms with simple actuators. Because each bi-stable-pair mechanism with a simple actuator has only two states with high repeatability, sensors for feedback of actuators are not needed for positioning tasks of micro parallel manipulators with digital actuation system. A composition of bi-stable-pair mechanism for wide-range of stroke requirements has been proposed. Some experimental results with macro-size bi-stable-pair mechanisms have been also shown and discussed.