Circular Tracking Performance of a Flexure-Based Micro-Motion Stage

This paper presents the circular tracking performance of a flexure-based micro-motion stage. The mechanical design and prototype development are first illustrated. A double closed-loop control strategy, including the inner and outer feedback controllers, is then employed. Subsequently, main factors affecting its circular tracking performance are further analyzed. Experimental results show that the actual circular trajectory can be enlarged by increasing K and K. The circular tracking performance is improved when the sampling period decreases within a certain range. By contrast, it deteriorates as the amplitudes of input sinusoid signals increase. In addition, tracking errors cannot be decreased through exchanging input signals. It demonstrates that there are four parts in a certain cycle where the circular tracking performance is poor. The reason is that these parts are peak and valley points of input signals, and they are influenced by dynamic characteristics of this stage.