Design of compliant parallel grippers using the position space concept for manipulating sub-millimeter objects

The structure or configuration of compliant mechanisms can be reconfigured through changing the positions of each compliant module thereof within their position spaces. A number of 1-DOF 2-PRRP compliant parallel grippers (CPGs) can be obtained using the structure re-configurability for manipulating sub-millimeter objects. Even with the geometrical parameters for the system's pseudo-rigid-body model (PRBM) and each compliant module kept at the same values, the position of each compliant joint can be anywhere within its position space. The performance of the resulting CPG varies with the position of the compliant joint. In this paper two typical CPG designs are presented and analyzed. Comparisons between FEA simulaiton resutls and analytical models show that the input-output kinematic relationship of the non-compact design agrees better with that of the PRBM due to its better load transmissibility. One can design different structures based on specific design requirements.