Experimental System Identification and Disturbance Observer-based Control for a Monolithic $Z{\theta}_{x}{\theta}_{y}$ Precision Positioning System

A compliant parallel micromanipulator is a mechanism in which the moving platform is connected to the base through a number of flexural components. Utilizing parallel-kinematics configurations and flexure joints, the monolithic micromanipulators can achieve extremely high motion resolution and accuracy. In this work, the focus was towards the experimental evaluation of a 3-DOF ($Z{\theta}_{x}{\theta}_{y}$) monolithic flexure-based piezo-driven micromanipulator for precise out-of-plane micro/nano positioning applications. The monolithic structure avoids the deficiencies of non-monolithic designs such as backlash, wear, friction, and improves the performance of micromanipulator in terms of high resolution, accuracy, and repeatability. A computational study was conducted to investigate and obtain the inverse kinematics of the proposed micromanipulator. As a result of computational analysis, the developed prototype of the micromanipulator is capable of executing large motion range of $\pm$238.5$\mu$m $\times$ $\pm$4830.5$\mu$rad $\times$ $\pm$5486.2$\mu$rad. Finally, a sliding mode control strategy with nonlinear disturbance observer (SMC-NDO) was designed and implemented on the proposed micromanipulator to obtain system behaviors during experiments. The obtained results from different experimental tests validated the fine micromanipulator's positioning ability and the efficiency of the control methodology for precise micro/nano manipulation applications. The proposed micromanipulator achieved very fine spatial and rotational resolutions of $\pm$4nm, $\pm$250nrad, and $\pm$230nrad throughout its workspace.