A 3 DOF piezohydraulic parallel micromanipulator

Abstract

The paper presents a new parallel micromanipulator that is composed of three piezohydraulic actuation systems. The basic elements of the actuation system are apiezoelectric actuator, a bellows and hydraulic oil. The use of the flexible bellows results in a new type of parallel structure, where the joints are integrated into actuatorlinks. The joint-free tripod-like micromanipulator is controlled using a real-time control software that is based on a multi-level architecture. Control is organised in four levels for non-linearity compensation, position feedback control, supervision and tackling of automatic operations. The presented micromanipulator provides an exceptional combination of submicrometer resolution, large work space, miniature size and advanced control.