Ultraprecision 6-axis table driven by means of walking drive

摘要

A new ultraprecision 6-axis table is developed by employing the principle of "walking drive". The table is driven by nine pairs of supporting and feeding piezoelectric actuators. It can travel smoothly over a long stroke of 60 mm in X and Y directions and can also rotate around C axis, although the stroke of each actuator is extremely small. Furthermore, the attitude of the table can be controlled by applying additional commands to the supporting actuators, i.e. the table can be moved in the Z direction and also around A and B axes with short strokes. The walking table developed in the present research has 6 degrees of freedom of motion driven simultaneously. It has unique advantages compared to conventional tables, such as extremely high positioning resolution, smooth motion, multi-axis motion, direct drive without conventional guides, no use of lubricant, etc.