Design of a two-stage compliant asymmetric piezoelectrically actuated microgripper with parasitic motion compensation

The parasitic motion of microgripper jaws affect clamping accuracy. The parallelogram mechanism (PM) is often used as the last-stage of the multi-stage amplification mechanisms (AMs) because of its parallel clamping characteristics. However, the PM traditionally used in multi-stage AMs is asymmetrically stressed, which will affect its parallel clamping accuracy. Based on this, a PM with symmetrical forces is designed. The paper addresses the issue of parasitic motion in microgripper jaws and its impact on clamping accuracy, which is a relevant concern in micro-scale manipulation systems. The design of a symmetrically stressed PM for use in a two-stage asymmetric microgripper is a novel contribution to the field. Based on the minimum potential energy principle and the Castigliano's second theorem, the mechanical modeling of the mechanism's parasitic displacement, magnification and parallel clamping accuracy is carried out. Comparing the mechanical model, finite element analysis (FEA) and experimental measurement results, the values given by the three different methods are close. The method given in this paper to improve the clamping accuracy of the mechanism is also applicable to similar compliant mechanisms.