Development of a Spring - Parallel Mechanism Using Circular Spring Joints Based on Compliant Mechanism

In this paper, a spring-parallel mechanism within high precision and wide working area, based on compliant mechanism, is presented. Spring-parallel mechanism is a parallel mechanism in which all of the joints are composed by elastic deformable joints. The presented mechanism is composed by circular spring joints that have been inspired by a plant “Drakaea”. From our analytical and experimental tests, it was revealed that the circular spring joint has desirable characteristics for composing a spring-parallel mechanism. From these primary experiments, we developed a 3 DOF spring-parallel mechanism, to be used for an optical component positioning machine. The prototype evaluation tests revealed the advantageous characteristics of the mechanism.