Optimal Design of a 3-DOF Parallel Micromanipulator

A new compliant parallel micromanipulator is proposed in this paper. The manipulator has three degrees of freedom (DOF) and can generate motions in a microscopic scale. It can be used for biomedical engineering and fiber optics industry. In the paper, the detailed design of the structure is first introduced, followed by the kinematic analysis and performance evaluation. Second, a finite-element analysis of resultant stress, strain, and deformations is evaluated based upon different inputs of the three piezoelectric actuators. Finally, the genetic algorithms and radial basis function networks are implemented to search for the optimal architecture and behavior parameters in terms of global stiffness, dexterity and manipulability.