Recent developments of compliant mechanisms built by additive manufacturing confirm their potential for highprecision applications in harsh environments. Several projects are presented, from simple flexure pivots to complex 3D compliant mechanisms designs, to show the advantages and challenges of the design, manufacturing and testing of such systems. Focus is put on the specific design methodology, the integration of electrical functions, the guiding and lifetime performance results to highlight the potential for future high-precision applications such as high-precision, cryogenic or space.
First, the redesign of simple flexure blades and crossed-blade pivots has been performed. The guiding performances have been compared to simulations. Then, more complex architectures of compliant mechanisms have been designed, manufactured and tested. For example, the European Space Agency (ESA) project Compliant Mechanisms based on Additive Manufacturing (COMAM) and the European H2020 project Prototype for Ultra Large Structure Assembly Robot (PULSAR). This project validates the positioning of tiles integrated on 3D printed flexible pivots and gimbals with a repeatability better than 1 μm. ESA selected CSEM for a new project, the development of a new compliant mechanism with a rotary to linear motion transformation. It is presented here with a novel 3D printed monolithic architecture made of stainless steel.
The H2020 project PULSAR (Prototype for an Ultra Large Structure Assembly Robot) development objective is to create three demonstrators that that will pave the way for the construction of large structures in orbit. The study case considered in PULSAR is the assembly of a segmented primary mirror for next generation 35m space-based telescope. In the frame of this project, CSEM is developing Single Mirror Tile demonstrators (SMT) that host a positioning mechanism capable of adjusting the position of the hexagonal mirror in order to compensate for inaccuracies generated by the robotic assembly. This mechanism has a tripod architecture. It is composed of three linear actuators and of transmission stages, each made of a flexible pivot and of a gimbal. This mechanism allows for controlling the mirror position along three degrees of freedom (piston translation and tip and tilt rotations). The piston stroke is required to be ±3 mm with a resolution of 1 μm and a repeatability better than 5 μm while the tip/tilt strokes are ±1° with 4 μrad of resolution and 20 μrad of repeatability. The design of the tiles benefits from CSEM extensive experience in compliant mechanisms and additive manufacturing applied to the domain of scientific instrumentations for space applications.
Based on a new concept to build flexible structures by metallic 3D printing that has been developed at CSEM, several compliant mechanisms have been redesigned for Additive Manufacturing (AM). In addition to the new geometric possibilities offered by AM, the needs for machining and assembly after printing are drastically reduced. Support structures under flexure blades are thus minimized and the overall process becomes more streamlined. Moreover, this idea allows us to advantageously design and produce monolithic cross blade flexure pivots with interlocked flexures. Thanks to this concept, CSEM is now developing and testing new architectures of Compliant Mechanisms based on Additive Manufacturing (COMAM) for the European Space Agency (ESA) in the frame of a GSTP research project.
This paper presents a complete manipulation platform for characterization of micro-components that is being developed
in the scope of the European project GOLEM. Various tools such as electrical probes and force sensors have been
designed and integrated on both high precision mobile micro-robots and fixed manipulators in order to interact with
micro-objects. The platform enables the user to characterize parts with sizes ranging from sub-micrometer up to the
millimeter. Forces ranging from 1 mN up to 120 mN can be measured as well as electrical resistivity of microcomponents.
As the characterization platform is aimed to be used by material scientists and biologists, the manipulation
is "assisted" so that the user focuses on the application and not on the robotic systems. One of the key features is that the
control software will automatically bring the end-effectors of the manipulators in the local (microscope) field of view.
The platform is composed of an XY stage mounted on an inverted optical microscope, of manipulators (fixed and
mobile) and of various sensors (optical, force and electrical).
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