The precision, speed, and stroke of mechatronic machines need continuous improvement. Compliant mechanisms are widely used in the precision machines, but they do not have larger strokes due to their limited deformation. In the present time, various applications also require high speed and more problems appear due to the dynamics of the compliant mechanisms. These problems can be solved by improving the support stiffness. In this thesis, novel designs are introduced which improve the support stiffness of 1 DOF translational motion. A novel method is introduced to amplify the strokes and implemented in the proposed designs. This method can be used along with designs that passively maintain the support stiffness, but active approaches are explored. The first active approach is distributed mechatronics and the second approach is an XY stage.
The XY stage moves in X- or Y- direction using differential drive. It does not have the first non-collocated mode which is present in existing XY stages having parallel configuration. It also has high yaw rotation stiffness which is verified using experiments. There is no undesired mode occurring within the 9 to 10 times of the desired X-direction mode. In conclusion, the XY stage can be used in industries demanding higher precision and throughput. Further, it opens up the avenue of designing other DOF, more collocated motion stages.