A six-degree-of-freedom micro-manipulator based on piezoelectric translators

High-performance actuation is always desirable in a dexterous high-precision manipulation system. In this paper, we first develop a single-degree-of-freedom piezoelectric translator composed of a piezoelectric stack, a monolithic leaf spring and a preload mechanism. The displacement resolution reached by this translator is better than 10 nm, while its natural frequency is over 2 kHz. Based on the developed piezoelectric translator, a micro-manipulator is then designed, which is capable of producing micro-motions in six degrees of freedom. The design characteristics and kinematics of this micro-manipulator are investigated. An effective kinematic model used for the real-time control is presented, and the operation performance of the micro-manipulator is discussed further.