IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 60, NO.
10, OCTOBER 2013
Optimal Design, Fabrication, and Control
of an XY Micropositioning Stage Driven
by Electromagnetic Actuators
Shunli Xiao and Yangmin Li, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper presents the optimal design, fabrication,
and control of a novel compliant flexure-based totally decoupled
X Y micropositioning stage driven by electromagnetic actuators.
The stage is constructed with a simple structure by employing
double four-bar parallelogram flexures and four noncontact types
of electromagnetic actuators to realize the kinematic decoupling
and force decoupling, respectively. The kinematics and dynam-
ics modeling of the stage are conducted by resorting to com-
pliance and stiffness analysis based on matrix method, and the
parameters are obtained by multiobjective genetic algorithm (GA)
optimization method. The analytical models for electromagnetic
forces are also established, and both mechanical structure and
electromagnetic models are validated by finite-element analysis
via ANSYS software. It is found that the system is with hysteresis
and nonlinear characteristics when a preliminary open-loop test is
conducted; thereafter, a simple PID controller is applied. There-
fore, an inverse Preisach model-based feedforward sliding-mode
controller is exploited to control the micromanipulator system.
Experiments show that the moving range can achieve 1 mm ×
1 mm and the resolution can reach ±0.4 μm. Moreover, the
designed micromanipulator can bear a heavy load because of its
optimal mechanical structure.
Index Terms—Electromagnetic actuators, hysteresis, micro-/
nanopositioning, sliding-mode control.
I. I NTRODUCTION
C OMPLIANT positioning stages with ultrahigh precision
play more and more important roles in such a situation
where a high-resolution motion over a micro-/nanorange is
expected in the cases of microelectromechanical systems, opti-
cal fiber alignment, biological cell manipulation, and scanning
probe microscope. Compared with conventional mechanical
joints, flexure hinges can provide more ideal high-precision
Manuscript received October 30, 2011; revised March 2, 2012 and May 6,
2012; accepted June 18, 2012. Date of publication July 19, 2012; date of
current version May 16, 2013. This work was supported in part by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61128008, by the Macao
Science and Technology Development Fund under Grant 016/2008/A1, by
the Research Committee of the University of Macau under Grant MYRG203
(Y1-L4)-FST11-LYM, and by the State Key Laboratory of Robotics of
Shenyang Institute of Automation under Grant O8A120S.
S. Xiao is with the Department of Electromechanical Engineering, Faculty
of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau (e-mail:
yb07408@umac.mo).
Y. Li is with the Department of Electromechanical Engineering, Faculty of
Science and Technology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, and also with
Tianjin Key Laboratory for Control Theory and Applications in Complicated
Systems, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China (e-mail:
ymli@umac.mo).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2012.2209613
0278-0046/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE
4613
motions since they have advantages, including no backlash, no
friction losses, no need for lubrication, vacuum compatibility,
and ease of fabrication and assembly. Hence, many compliant
mechanisms adopt flexural hinges to realize precise micro-/
nanopositioning tasks.
Due to the advantages of the compliant parallel stages with
high bearing load capacity, high accuracy, low inertia, and com-
pact size, many parallel stages are proposed for the pertinent
applications [1]–[5]. In these structures, the closed-loop nature
of the parallel mechanism limits the motion of the platform and
creates complex kinematic singularities inside the work space.
Because of the limited work space along with the singularities
and voids inside it, trajectory planning and control are difficult
to realize. With respect to simplifying the control strategies,
there are many studies concentrated on decoupled parallel
micro/nano operational stages [6], in which the stages are
mostly driven by piezoelectric actuators (PZT). Considering
that the PZT cannot bear shearing force and usually can only
offer tens of micrometers of strokes, a force decoupled displace-
ment amplifier is required for those micro-/nanopositioning
stages. However, these motion decoupled structures and ad-
ditional force decoupled displacement amplifiers really com-
plicate the structure because of the very limited work space
available [7]. Aside from PZT actuators, there are many other
driving technologies, such as shape memory alloy actuator,
thermal actuator, and magnetostrictive actuator [8], which also
encounter the similar problems as when using PZT.
For such practical applications such as IC assembly and
biological cell manipulation, a large motion range of the stage
is needed for effective operation. In order to make a balance on
large motion range, high resolution in positioning, and simple
controller design, considering the small payload of the maglev
system in the normal gravity environment, we need not only
to construct a kinematic decoupled structure with compliant
flexure hinges but also to eliminate force contact by using
noncontact or a frictionless force generated between the moving
platform and the stator. Several kinds of actuators can real-
ize noncontact or frictionless forces, such as electromagnetic
force and air bearings, but air bearings are not suitable for a
vacuum environment. There are many advantages associated
with electromagnetic actuators in terms of no contamination, no
friction, fast response, large travel range, and low cost [9], [10].
Moreover, comparing with the maglev micropositioning sys-
tems [11], [12], the electromagnetic driven micromanipulator
with flexure-based mechanism can achieve a large load capa-
bility and a good positioning precision.
4614 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 60, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013

Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of decoupled XY stages.

Fig. 2. Typical applications of parallelogram flexures.

II. D ESIGN OF A D ECOUPLED XY C OMPLIANT S TAGE

In order to construct a decoupled XY compliant stage, the
mechanical scheme is designed as shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b),
and a simple mechanism with sliding pairs is employed due
to its simple structure, where two configurations are produced
according to the assembled sequence of the sliding-pair ele-
ments. It is noticeable that the sliding pairs in a common mech-
anism are not suitable for application in micro-/nanodevices.
A compliant mechanism with flexure hinges can be used to
replace the rigid-body mechanism with sliding pairs. Similar
to the design of a rigid-body manipulator based on four sliding
pairs, a compliant mechanism with four parallelogram flexures
can be designed as shown in Fig. 2(a) and (b), respectively. In
view of a heavier capability in payload and smaller total size, Fig. 3. Conceptual design.
a symmetrical structure of the stage is designed as shown in
Fig. 3(a) and (b). In Fig. 3(a), the mobile platform is arranged
inside the stage, while in Fig. 3(b), the mobile platform is
constructed as an outside square frame. If a force is exerted on
the mobile platform in the x- or y-direction, it will move along
one direction without any interference from the other direction.
A decoupled electromagnetic force actuator assembled with
a perpendicular motion is used to drive the mobile platform.
To achieve a symmetrical structure and a simple controller,
single-coil electromagnet is adopted; meanwhile, two single-
coil electromagnets are arranged opposite each other on the two
sides of the stage in the x- or y-direction, respectively, as shown
in Fig. 4. The armatures are fixed onto the mobile platform, and
the electromagnetic actuators are fixed onto the fixed platform;
then, a noncontact force can be exerted on the mobile platform
to form a force decoupled structure. Moreover, the noncontact
laser sensors are used to measure the displacements, which
can also avoid any contacts between the mobile platform and
fixed platform. The electromagnets have very simple structures,
which can be purchased or fabricated easily. After all the struc- Fig. 4. Symmetrical XY decoupled stage driven by electromagnets.
ture scheme is carefully designed, a 3-D assembly schematic
of the stage is expressed in Fig. 5. The mechanical structure so that a large deflection is allowed. If proper dimension is
can be fabricated monolithically by wire electrodischarge ma- selected, the motion range can reach 1 mm × 1 mm with
chining. Aluminum alloy material (AL7075-T651) with a high ultrahigh precision, which will have wide applications in many
σy /E ratio is selected as the material to build up the stage micro-/nanofields.
XIAO AND LI: OPTIMAL DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND CONTROL OF XY MICROPOSITIONING STAGE 4615

respect to D. Similarly, we can obtain the stiffness KL2 , KL3 ,

KL4 , KL5 , KL6 , KL7 , and KL8 as follows:
 −1
KL1 = [CL1 ]−1 = C1D + C2D
 −1
KL2 = [CL2 ]−1 = C5D + C6D

D −1
KL3 = [CL3 ]−1 = C9D + C10
 D
D −1
KL4 = [CL4 ]−1 = C13 + C14
 −1
KL5 = [CL5 ]−1 = C3D + C4D
 −1
KL6 = [CL6 ]−1 = C7D + C8D
 D
D −1
KL7 = [CL7 ]−1 = C11 + C12
 D
D −1
KL8 = [CL8 ]−1 = C15 + C16 . (4)
Fig. 5. Three-dimensional mechanical design of the manipulator.
D
It can be observed that the compliance CA can be described
as four parallel limbs (CL1234 = CL1 //CL2 //CL3 //CL4 )
III. C OMPLIANCE AND S TIFFNESS OF THE XY S TAGE connected serially with other four parallel limbs (CL5678 =
Various methods can be adopted in modeling the compliant CL5 //CL6 //CL7 //CL8 ). The compliance of input point A
mechanisms [7], [13]. One of those typical methods is the with respect to the ground point D can be derived by
pseudo-rigid-body method, which is based upon simplification D
analysis, and only the deformation around one axis is consid- CA = CL1234 + CL5678 (5)
ered. However, other members of the mechanism except the
hinges are assumed as rigid bodies, and their deformations are where
neglected. The compliance C1D is defined as the compliance of
point O1 with respect to the ground point D. All the limbs and CL1234 = [KL1 + KL2 + KL3 + KL4 ]−1
hinges are connected in serial or parallel, as shown in Fig. 3(b). CL5678 = [KL5 + KL6 + KL7 + KL8 ]−1 . (6)
For the purpose of calculating the compliance of the stage, the
compliance of every flexure hinge with respect to the ground According to the simple structure, the input compliance is
CiD can be derived by approximately equal to the output compliance.
 T
CiD = TiD Ci TiD (1)
IV. DYNAMIC M ODELING AND A NALYSIS
where the transformation matrix takes on the following form: Lagrange’s method is employed for the dynamics modeling
    of the stage [13]. Variable d = [d1 , d2 ]T denotes the displace-
j
j R i S rij Rij ment along the x- or y-axis, respectively so that the kinetic
Ti = . (2) and potential energies of the compliant mechanism can be
0 Rij
expressed by generalized coordinates. It is assumed that the
kinetic energies are generated from the rigid links connecting
where Rij is the rotation matrix of coordinate Oi with respect to with flexure hinges; hence, the potential energies are introduced
Oj , rij is the position vector of point Oi expressed in reference by the elastic deformations of flexure hinges. Since the stage
frame Oj , and S(r) represents the skew-symmetric operator for is horizontally placed, the gravity potential energy remains the
a vector r = [rx , ry , rz ]T with the notation same during the motion, so it will not be taken into account.
⎡ ⎤ The kinetic energy of the stage is derived by
0 −rz ry
 2    2
S(r) = ⎣ rz 0 −rx ⎦ . (3) 1 1 ˙ 1 1 d˙1
−ry rx 0 T = ma d1 ×4+ ma l 2
×4
2 2 2 12 l
 2
Considering the symmetrical structure and arrangement of 1 1 1 1 ˙
the actuators in the stage, we can assume that both the input + mb (d˙1 )2 + mc (d˙1 )2 ×4+ mc d2 ×4
2 2 2 2
force and output force will pass through the central point    2
1 1 d˙2 1  
A of the mobile platform so as to simplify the calculation. + mc l 2 ×4+ md (d˙1 )2 +(d˙2 )2 (7)
The virtual conceptual point A and point D will be at the 2 12 l 2
same place when no forces are applied to the XY stage or
those forces do not result in any deformations. For calculating where ma , mb , mc , and md are the masses of the limb a,
those compliances of each limb, the stiffness KL1 = [CL1 ]−1 the middle platform b, the limb c, and the mobile platform d,
is defined as the compliance of the limb from O1 → O2 with respectively.
4616 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 60, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013

The potential energy of the whole mechanism can be surface of the thinnest portion of the hinge reaches the allow-
derived by able stress σa . Referring to [13], the relationship between the
1 1 maximum stress and maximum rotation of the flexure hinge can
V = k1 d21 + k2 d22 (8) be calculated by
2 2
9
where k1 or k2 is the input stiffness in the x- or y-direction, r E(1 + β) 20
σmax = θmax (17)
respectively. β 2 f (β)
Substituting the kinetic and potential energies into
Lagrange’s equation leads to where β = t/2r is a dimensionless geometry factor with the
accuracy range of 0 < β < 0.3 and f (β) is a dimensionless
d ∂T ∂T ∂V compliance factor defined in [13] as
− + = Fi (9)
dt ∂ d˙i ∂di ∂di 
1 3 + 4β + 2β 2
where Fi (i = 1, 2); Fi (i = 1) is the input actuation force, and f (β) =
2β + β 2 (1 + β)(2β + β 2 )
Fi (i = 2) is the output force, respectively.
The dynamics equation of the undamped free vibration of the  1 
6(1 + β) −1 2+β 2
compliant mechanism system can be derived by + 3 tan . (18)
(2β + β 2 ) 2 β
M d¨ + Kd = 0 (10)
Second, the maximum tensile stress subject to the axial
where load may occur on the thinnest portions of the flexure hinges
2  connecting the displacement amplifiers or other links of the
3 ma + 12 mb + 2mc + 12 md 0 stage, which can be determined by
M= 2 1 (11)
0 3 m c + 2 md
Fin Kin Q
σ1t = = (19)
is the mass matrix and Smin wt

K = diag{k1 , k2 }2×2 (12) where Smin denotes the minimum cross-sectional area of the
hinge. Then, the safety factor can be described by a function of
is the stiffness matrix. t, R, input compliance CA , and input displacement Q, which
Based on the theory of vibrations, the modal equation de- gives the relationship between the stiffness/compliance values
scribing the free vibration of the system can be obtained by and the architectural parameters of the gripper.
 
K − M λ2i Φi = 0 (13)
VI. M ODELING AND A NALYSIS OF THE
where λ2i and Φi are the eigenvalue and eigenvector related to E LECTROMAGNETIC N ONCONTACT
the ith mode shape of the mechanism, respectively. L INEAR ACTUATOR
Solving the following characteristic equation
The electromagnetic hybrid single-coil actuator cannot pro-
 
K − M λ2i  = 0 (14) duce a symmetrical force because of the different magnetic flux
paths. When the direction of applied electromagnetic force is
leads to generation of the eigenvalue λ2i . required to change, the electrical current direction should be
The fundamental natural frequency can be calculated by changed accordingly, and a dead time will appear during the
change of the current direction, which will affect the actuator’s
λi
fi = . (15) dynamic characteristics. Therefore, it is difficult to control the
2π force and the displacement of these actuators since they are
usually used by a switching valve. It can be observed that the
spring-based single-coil actuator faces the same problem. A
V. S AFETY FACTOR OF THE P OSITIONING S TAGE
dual-coil bidirectional actuator can obtain a symmetrical force
With σa denoting the allowable stress of the material and σy property, but this kind of actuator is also limited by its me-
expressing the yield strength of the material, the safety factor chanical structure which always contains some frictional pairs
can be written as na = σy /σa . It is obvious that the stress is and cannot be used in precise positioning stages. Considering
mainly concentrated on the notched circular flexures because the advantages of the force property of the dual-coil actuator,
the rotations (σr ) and axial loads (σt ) of the flexure hinges the noncontact structure of the C-type or E-type single-coil
remain within the allowable stress σa of the material actuator, and the symmetrical structure of the XY positioning
σy stage, we proposed the stage driven by four electromagnetic ac-
σa = = σr + σs . (16) tuators as shown in Fig. 4. The control strategy can be described
na
as follows: When the forces are applied equally by the two
First, concerning a notch hinge bearing a bending moment opposite actuators, the X or Y displacement is zero. When one
around its rotational axis, the maximum angular displacement actuating force is increased and the opposite one is decreased,
r
θmax arises when the maximum stress σmax at the outermost the stage will move toward the smaller force direction and vice
XIAO AND LI: OPTIMAL DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND CONTROL OF XY MICROPOSITIONING STAGE 4617

versa. The advantage of this design lies in that each actuator

does not need to change its actuating force direction or its
coil current direction; hence, a single triode-based amplifier is
enough to drive one single coil. Otherwise, if the direction of
the force or the coil current needs to be changed, a complex
H-bridge circuit for the coil will be required. In consequence,
the actuating force is decoupled due to the symmetrical and
noncontact structure.
To predict the static characteristics of a single electromag-
netic actuator, the parameters of the magnetic field, the me-
chanical movement, and the electrical power supply must be
quantified.
The equation for the static analysis of the stage is

FEi = ki di (20)
Fig. 6. Finite-element model of the XY stage.
where FEi (for i = 1, 2) is the driving force exerted on the
mobile platform in the x- or y-direction produced by the
electromagnetic actuators, respectively.
For each single actuator, the approximated calculation
method [14] for the electromagnetic force can be used by
Φi
Bi = . (21)
S0
Using Ampere’s law and Kirchhoff’s law leads to
NI
Φi = 
μ0
. (22)
2qi la lb
μ0 S 0 + μ0 μr1 S1 + μ0 μr2 S2

where Bi (for i = 1, 2) is the magnetic flux density in the

x- and y-directions, respectively; N is the turns of the coil; I
is the exciting current; qi (for i = 1, 2) is the length of the air
gap in the x- or y-direction, respectively; la is the length of the
armature; lb is the length of the back iron; μ0 is the vacuum
permeability; μr1 and μr2 are the relative permeabilities of
the armature and back iron, respectively; S0 is the area of the
air gap; and S1 and S2 are the cross-sectional areas of the
armature and back iron, respectively. Because our air gap is
small enough, we can assume that the magnetic area for the Fig. 7. First four modal shapes of the XY positioning stage.
gap is equal to that of the back iron. The basic formulation for
the electromagnetic force can be established by virtual work For a single actuator, when the air gap is 2 mm, the length
principle as follows: of the whole flux path is about 120 mm, the sectional area
of the back iron is 100 mm2 , the exciting current is 0.5 A,
(Bi )2 S0 and the turns of the coil is 2400, the driving force can reach
FEi = . (23) 246 N based on virtual work principle and 238 N based on
2μ0
the Maxwell stress tensor principle, respectively, from finite-
The formulation mentioned above is for an ideal simple elec- element analysis via ANSYS software.
tromagnet which is quite different from the practical working
situation. In practice, there are always several factors to be
VII. C OMPLIANCE AND S TIFFNESS
considered for the formulation above. A more accurate solution
M ODEL VALIDATION W ITH FEA
may be obtained by assuming several values of B via interpo-
lation and considering the nonlinear relationship between the The established models for the assessment of input compli-
magnetic flux density B and the magnetic field intensity H. ance of the XY positioning stage are validated by the FEA
Since both F and Φ are functions of the current i and the through ANSYS software as shown in Figs. 6 and 7. The
air gap δ and the actuator is partially saturated, a finite-element architecture parameters of the stage are described in Table I
analysis (FEA) is carried out. The amount of both flux linkage where the parameter w is the thickness and all the hinges are
and the force by using the Maxwell stress tensor at discrete designed with identical dimensions, and the mesh model is
positions of the armature can be obtained. created with the element PLANE82. When a force is applied at
4618 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 60, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013
TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF THE M ECHANISM
TABLE II
K INEMATICS P ERFORMANCE OF THE P OSITIONING S TAGE
TABLE III
NATURAL F REQUENCY OF THE XY P OSITIONING S TAGE
TABLE IV
O PTIMIZED O BJECTIVE F UNCTION VALUES AND D ESIGN PARAMETERS
one side of the mobile platform, the corresponding input load
and output motion of the stage are obtained to determine the
output compliance. The natural frequencies evaluated by the
derived models through (15) and FEA models are elaborated
in Table II.
In addition, the first two mode shapes in Fig. 7 are just
translational motions in the x- and y-directions, which also
reveal the mobility characteristics of the stage. Some vibrations
on the mobile platform will occur in the third and fourth
mode shapes, but the natural frequencies in those mode shapes
are relatively high. It can be ignored if the mobile platform
works under relative low frequencies. As shown in Table III,
taking FEA results as the benchmark, we can observe that the
maximum deviation of the derived model from the FEA results
is around 10%. The offset mainly comes from the accuracy
of the adopted equations for the compliance factors and the
neglect of the compliances of the links between flexure hinges
since these links are assumed to be rigid in the matrix model
(see Table IV).
Fig. 8. Stiffness of the XY positioning stage with respect to the parameters r
and t.
Fig. 9. Safety factor of the XY positioning stage with respect to the parame-
ters r and t.
VIII. P ERFORMANCE I NDEX O PTIMIZATION
The goal of structural parameter design is to confirm the best
geometric configuration according to the objective function and
geometric constraint. To make the positioning stage possess
good performance in terms of high system stiffness, wide op-
erational range, and large safety factor, dimensional synthesis
optimization is one of the most important steps in the design
process. Just as shown in Figs. 8 and 9, if the compliance is
increased, the parameters of the right circular hinges’ r should
be decreased, and t should be increased. If the safety factor is
expected to be larger, we can vary the parameters r and t in
the inverse direction. Figs. 8 and 9 show how the performance
indices conflict with each other as there are only two parameters
to be varied. In fact, the variety of any parameters will affect the
performance such as dimension, compliance, and safety factor.
Therefore, the optimization result will be a set considering all
kinds of different constraint conditions.
The multiple-objective optimization problem can be solved
by many ways. We use a genetic algorithm (GA) to determine
an entire Pareto optimal solution set or a representative subset.
A Pareto optimal solution set is a set of solutions that do not
dominate each other. Pareto optimal solution sets are often
preferred to single solutions because they can be practical when
real-life problems are considered since the final solution of the
decision maker is always a tradeoff. GA can be used to find a set
of multiple nondominated solutions in a single run [15], [16].
Although GAs or other methods can be adopted without arti-
ficial neural networks to search for the best solution set of vari-
ables, the main problem is that it is time consuming, particularly
XIAO AND LI: OPTIMAL DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND CONTROL OF XY MICROPOSITIONING STAGE
Fig. 10. Test of the RFB NN fitting performance.
when the parameters are diversified, and the objective function
is too complex that GAs cannot work well based on the ana-
lytical expression of the performance indices, particularly for
the case of multiobjective optimization. The error of the output
of radial basis function (RBF) NN is constrained in a minimal
threshold value that will not affect the computing accuracy with
the CPU. As shown in Fig. 10, the output of the RBF NN is
tested and compared with the input surface. Since the two sur-
faces are matched well and it is hard to tell the difference, a slice
is used to show the tiny difference between the fitting surface
and the analytical equations created surface. Since the trained
neural network is ready for the objective function, the genetic
algorithm can be implemented to search for the best solutions
[15], [16].
The RBF NN based on GA is adopted, and three single
objectives are combined with Pareto optimal solutions to ac-
complish multiobjective optimization. The structural parame-
ters of the flexure joints are optimized simultaneously, and an
optimal solution set is obtained. With the selection of stiffness,
safety factor, and amplifier ratio as the objective functions, the
optimization procedures are stated as follows.
1) Maximize input stiffness (kin ), safety factor (na ), first-
order natural frequency (fN ), and working range (dmax ).
2) Minimize outside dimension (lA ).
3) Variables to be optimized: r, t, l, l1 , l2 , l3 , l4 , and δ (the
distance between the armature and the electromagnetic
driver).
4) Subject to:
a) safety factor na ≥ 2.5;
b) input stiffness value kin ≤ FE max /dmax ;
c) working range x ≥ 500 μm;
d) parameters ranges: 1.5 mm ≤ r ≤ 6 mm, 0.3 mm ≤
t ≤ 2 mm, 10 mm ≤ l ≤ 50 mm, 5 mm ≤ l1 ≤
50 mm, 5 mm ≤ l2 ≤ 200 mm, 25 mm ≤ l3 ≤
200 mm, and 5 mm ≤ l4 ≤ 100 mm.
Where FE max is the maximum driving force that the elec-
tromagnetic actuator can exert on the mobile platform. If a
kind of material (AL7075-T651) with a special thickness (w =
12.7 mm) is chosen, eight parameters mentioned earlier need to
be optimized.
4619
Fig. 11. Pareto optimal solutions and Pareto frontier in solution space.
Fig. 12. Prototype of the mechanical system.
After the multiobjective optimization is performed, one of
the Pareto optimal frontiers is shown in Fig. 11, and the
designers can determine the final solutions depending on their
performances. From this figure, the tradeoff between the ob-
jectives of system stiffness, safety factor, and amplifier ratio is
demonstrated in the distributing trend of these Pareto points for
selections. Furthermore, through the observation of the optimal
process, it can be found that the objective values are mainly
influenced by four parameters in terms of r, t, l, and δ. There are
six optimal points whose corresponding objective values and
design parameters are shown in Table I. It shows that a set of
satisfied optimal solutions, which provide enough information
about alternative solutions for the decision maker with great
diversity, can be obtained with Pareto-based genetic algorithms.
IX. FABRICATION AND P RELIMINARY
E XPERIMENTAL S TUDY
After the mechanical structure is designed and the parameters
are optimized, the prototype can be fabricated via electrodis-
charge machining as shown in Fig. 12. In the experimental
study, two laser displacement sensors (Microtrak II head model:
LTC-025-02 from MTI Instruments, Inc.) with a resolution
of 0.12 μ and linearity better than 0.05% over a measure-
ment range of 2 mm associated with a dSPACE DS1005
(from dSPACE GmbH) rapid prototyping system equipped with
DS2001 A/D and DS2102 D/A modular boards are employed
to construct the experimental system. The power amplifier for
the electromagnetic actuators is made through OPA548 which
is a low-cost high-voltage/high-current operational amplifier.
4620 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 60, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013

Fig. 15. Open-loop crosstalk in x-direction leads by movement in y.

Fig. 13. Experimental setup.

Fig. 14. Open-loop crosstalk in y-direction leads by movement in x.

It operates from either single power supply (+8 to +60 V) or

dual power supplies (4 to 30 V) and outputs 3-A current con- Fig. 16. Modified conceptual design to decrease the crosstalk.
tinuously and 5 A at peak. The setup of the whole experimental
system is shown in Fig. 13.

A. Open-Loop Crosstalk Test

After the positioning stage is fabricated and assembled, the
first experiment is to test its open-loop crosstalk. As shown
in Figs. 14 and 15, the crosstalk is no more than 1.3% in
both directions, which has well confirmed the decoupled de-
sign of the mechanical system and the noncontact electromag-
netic driving system. Furthermore, the crosstalk error in the
y-direction leading in motion than in the x-direction is no
more than 0.7%, which is much less than the crosstalk er-
ror in the x-direction with 1.3%. It can be observed from
the fabricated mechanical system that the four bars along the Fig. 17. Hysteresis loop in x-direction.
y-axis separate much widely than the four bars in the
B. Open-Loop Hysteresis Study
x-direction. Therefore, the movement along the x-direction
can be more stable compared with the movement along the From the open-loop control experiment, the hysteresis and
y-direction. The experiment has also confirmed this point. the nonlinear characteristics of the system can be observed
Since the crosstalk is caused mostly by either the machining clearly. The maximal hysteresis rate can reach 11.5%. The
tolerances or assembly errors of the mechanical system, it is nonlinear characteristics of the system can be observed from
hard to establish an accurate model in the FEA. The experi- Fig. 17, and at the beginning of the first 2 V, the mobile platform
mental results demonstrate that practical experiences are also can just be moved about 50 μm. In the following 2-V voltages
very important in this engineering design. The structure can be from 2 to 4 V, it can go 130-μm displacement, and it can realize
optimized in design by separating the inside four bars as widely 300 μm in the last 2 V. The slope is increasing according to
as possible as shown in Fig. 16. the displacement of the mobile platform; in fact, it is related
XIAO AND LI: OPTIMAL DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND CONTROL OF XY MICROPOSITIONING STAGE
Fig. 18. Preliminary PID control study.
to the gap between the electromagnet and the armature. There-
fore, how to model the electromagnetic actuators with variable
gaps will be a key issue for the control system. Since the
electromagnetic actuators have a fast response, when the input
signal is within 10 Hz, the hysteresis loops look almost to have
no differences. Therefore, a rate-independent inverse Preisach
model can be adopted to compensate the hysteresis problems of
the system.
C. Preliminary PID Study
After obtaining the nonlinear characteristics of the elec-
tromagnetic actuators, the PID controller is used to test the
system as it is the most widely used controller. After the PID
parameters are carefully tuned, it can be seen from Fig. 18 that,
at the first steps from 0 to 100 μm, the response ascending
so slowly indicates that the P gain of the PID parameter is
obviously too small. In the following steps, after 4, 3, and 2 s,
the reference command can be reached, which means that the
response grows faster and faster when the armature is closer
and closer to the electromagnet. The last step shows clearly
that the parameters cannot suit for the system, so the system is
becoming unstable. The experiment also shows clearly that the
electromagnetic actuator driven system is not a linear system.
Since the driving force is determined not only by the voltage or
current applied to the electromagnet but also by the distance
between the armature and the electromagnet, the system is
with typical nonlinear characteristics just as the preliminary
PID experiments show. It is impossible to use a normal PID
controller to obtain satisfying robust performance at the whole
working range. During the experimental period, a special phe-
nomenon is observed, and the experiment data are recorded.
Fig. 19 shows a critical condition for the normal PID parameter
tuned controller to control the mobile platform to follow a sine
curve, and it can be seen that, when the armature moves closer
to the electromagnet, the response becomes unstable. Even if
there is a small displacement range, it is still very hard to obtain
satisfied PID parameters because of the problems of overshoot
and response time.
X. C ONTROL S TRATEGIES
In view of the system with typical nonlinear and hysteresis
characteristics, a more advanced controller should be adopted,
4621
Fig. 19. Critical response in case of following a sine curve in x-direction.
Fig. 20. μ weight density function of the Preisach model.
and a feedforward hysteresis compensator should be designed
also [17]–[20]. In this section, an inverse Preisach feedforward
compensator model and a dynamic sliding-mode controller will
be applied.
A. Preisach and Inverse Preisach Model
A notable feature of the Preisach model is its pure math-
ematical description. There is no direct relationship between
the modeling parameters and the physical hardware system.
Therefore, from the mathematical point of view, the relation-
ship between the input and the output is reversible, which is the
essential point for us to build the inverse Preisach model.
The input can be the reference distance and the output can be
the voltage value which is going to be used as the driving signal
of the following cascade real hardware system to recover the
reference distance signal.
For any μ-density weight function given hysteresis system,
it is easy to draw the hysteresis loop curves, but for some
hysteresis loops measured by experiment, the identification of
the density weight function μ(α, β) is always a hard work.
With respect to the identification of the hysteresis, a quadratic
programming optimization method in Matlab environment can
be used. The adopted method can identify the density weight
function precisely and remove mostly the effect of the sen-
sor noises [18]. The μ-density function of the electromagnet
driving micropositioning manipulator can be obtained, which
is shown in Fig. 20.
The same method to identify the μ-density function plane of
the inverse Preisach model can be used, as shown in Fig. 21.
Since the inverse μ-density function plane is obtained, the
4622
Fig. 21. μ weight density function of the inverse Preisach model.
Fig. 22. Performance of the predicated loop through identified inverse μ-
density function.
inverse hysteresis loop can be predicated. Furthermore, the
congruency and weep-out properties can be proved by the pred-
ication method with the μ-density function plane of the inverse
Preisach model. It can be observed easily through experimental
and predicated data that the proposed inverse Preisach model
possesses all the same properties as the normal Preisach model
does. The performance of the identified μ-density function
plane of the inverse Preisach model can be observed in Fig. 22.
It can be seen that the predicated error is quite large from 0
to around 30 μm. The main reason is that the principle of
discretizing the μ-density function plane is with equal space
and the voltage to displacement slope ratio is very large. The
compensation result after 30 μm is very ideal.
B. Hysteresis Compensator via Inverse Preisach Model
The main idea of an inverse feedforward compensator is
to cascade the inverse hysteresis operator Γ−1 with the actual
hysteresis, which is represented by the hysteresis operator Γ
to obtain an identify mapping between the desired actuator
output ŷ(t) and actuator response y(t) [20]. The mathematical
equation can be expressed by
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 60, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013
After the inverse compensator is constructed, its performance
is tested as shown in Fig. 24. It can be observed that the
compensator error is quite large within 30 μm from 40 to
50 s, whose errors may be caused by larger discretized step
interval or thermal drifting of the electromagnetic actuators.
Although large compensator errors are still existed, the inverse
Preisach model-based compensator has eliminated the nonlin-
ear and hysteresis influence mostly. Since only the inverse
hysteresis compensator cannot have satisfied performance to
control the system, some more advanced controllers have to be
developed.
For the whole system, after the reference distance signal is
input to the inverse Preisach model, the output voltage signal
with the inverse Preisach hysteresis characteristics is input to
the real system to cancel the hysteresis effects. The whole
inverse Preisach model compensated controller scheme can be
shown in Fig. 25.
C. Sliding-Mode Control
The sliding-mode controller (SMC) shows great ability in
handling some nonlinear or parameter unknown systems, and it
is an ideal controller to control the electromagnetic actuated mi-
cromanipulator [21]–[24]. As the positioning stage is designed
as a decoupled system, the stiffness in both directions is almost
the same, and the electromagnetic actuators can be arranged
symmetrically to each other; the controllers in two directions
are identical ones. Then, let k, δ0 , and δ stand for the stiffness,
the initial air gap, and the current distance from the mobile
platform to the electromagnetic actuator of the system for two
identical controllers in both directions. As the reluctance is
focused on the air gap, we can ignore the reluctance in the frame
and armature, and then, we can simplify (22) as follows:
NI
Φ≈ 
μ0
. (25)
2δ0
μ0 S 0
The dynamic model of the system can be written as
dδ
=v (26)
dt
Ldi
Ri + =e (27)
dt
 2
dv i
m + k(δ0 − δ) = C (28)
dt δ
where v is the velocity of the mobile platform, m is the
mass of the mobile platform, i is the current in the coil of
the electromagnet, e is the applied voltage, R is the coil’s
resistance, L is the coil’s inductance, and C is a constant which
can be expressed as

N 2 S02
y(t) = Γ Γ−1 [ŷ] (t) = I[ŷ](t) = y(t). (24) C=
4
. (29)

The operation of the cascade inverse feedforward controller Let the state variables, the control input, and the state vector
is shown in Fig. 23. be x1 = δ, x2 = v, x3 = i, u = e, and X = [x1 x2 x3 ]T . Thus,
XIAO AND LI: OPTIMAL DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND CONTROL OF XY MICROPOSITIONING STAGE 4623

Fig. 23. Scheme of compensator via inverse Preisach model.

If z1 , z2 , and z3 are driven to zero as t → ∞, then x1 will

converge to x 1d , x2 will converge to zero, and x3 will converge
to x3d = x1d (kδ0 − kx1d )/C as t → ∞.
The dynamic model of the magnetic driven positioning stage
in the new coordinate system can be written as

z˙1 = z2
z˙2 = z3
z˙3 = f (z) + g(z)u (34)

where
k Ck(δ0 − z1 − x1d ) − Cmz2 z3
Fig. 24. Performance of the feedforward compensator. f (z) = − z2 − 2
m m2 (z1 + x1d )
√
2u C 
g(z) = k(δ0 − z1 − x1d ) − z3 m
(z1 + x1d m)
2u
− [k(δ0 − z1 − x1d ) − z3 m] . (35)
Lm
It should be noted that the functions f (z) and g(z) are corre-
sponding to the following functions in the original coordinates:
k C x2 x23 + x1 x23 R
f1 (x) = − x2 − 2
Fig. 25. Diagram of the control scheme. m m Lx31
the state-space model of the magnetic driven micropositioning C x3
g1 (x) = 2 . (36)
system can be written as m x21 L
dx1
= x2 (30) From above equations, we can obtain f˙1 (x) and ġ1 (x)
dt  2
dx2 kδ0 k c x3  
= − x1 − (31) k C 3x 2
1 x 2 x 2
3 ẋ 1 − x 3
1 ẋ 2 x 2
3 + 2x 2
2 x 3 ẋ 3
dt m m m x1 f˙1 (x) = − ẋ2 − 2
m m x61
dx3 1
= (e − Ri). (32)
dt L CR ẋ1 x23 − x1 x3 ẋ3
−4
The state-space model of the magnetic levitation system mL x31
(30)–(32) will be used in the design of the SMC schemes. 2Cu 2x1 x3 ẋ1 − x21 ẋ3
Let x1d , x2d , and x3d be the desired values of x1 , x2 , and ġ1 (x) = . (37)
mL x41
x3 , respectively. The objective of the control schemes is to
make the state variables x1 , x2 , and x3 approach their desired Let the output of the system be
constant values x1d , x2d , and x3d , accordingly. Now, consider
the following nonlinear change of coordinates: y = z1 = x1 − x1d . (38)
z1 = x1 − x1d Using (34), the relationship between the input and the output
z2 = x 2  2 of the system can be found by
kδ0 k C x3
z3 = − x1 − . (33)
m m m x1 y (3) = f1 (x) + g1 (x)u. (39)
4624 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 60, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013

Using model (34), (38), and (39), we can design the SMC for
the electromagnetic driven micropositioning system.
To reduce the chattering due to the static sliding-mode con-
troller, a dynamic sliding-mode controller is adopted.
Differentiating (39) with respect to time leads to

y (4) = f˙1 + ġ1 u + g1 u̇. (40)

To design the dynamic sliding-mode controller, we will

choose the switching surface γ such that

γ = y (3) + m1 ÿ + m2 ẏ + m3 y (41)
Fig. 26. Step response of the hysteresis compensated SMC controller.
where m1 , m2 , and m3 are parameters to be chosen by the
designer such that the polynomial p1 = s3 + m1 s2 + m2 s +
m3 is a Hurwitz polynomial (where s is the Laplace operator).
Using (34) and (39), the switching surface γ can be writ-
ten as
   
2
C x3 k
γ = f 1 + g 1 u + m1 − (δ0 − δ)
m x1 m

+ m2 x2 + m3 (x1 − x1d ). (42)

The dynamic control scheme is


1
u̇ = − f˙1 − ġ1 u − m1 (f1 + g1 u)
g1 Fig. 27. Reference and response of x- and y-directions for a circular
contouring.
   
2
C x3 k
− m2 − (δ0 − δ)
m x1 m Moreover, the dynamics in (45) guarantees that γ γ̇ < 0.
 Since γ is driven to zero in finite time, the output y = z1
− m3 x2 − λ sign(γ) (43) is governed after such finite amount of time by the third-order
differential equation y (3) + m1 ÿ + m2 ẏ + m3 y = 0. Thus, the
output y = z1 will converge to zero as t → ∞ because m1 ,
γ̇ = f˙1 + ġ1 u + g1 u̇ + m1 (f1 + g1 u) m2 , and m3 are positive scalars chosen such that the polyno-
    mial p1 (s) = s3 + m1 s2 + m2 s + m3 is a Hurwitz polynomial
2
C x3 k
+ m2 − (δ0 − δ) + m3 x2 . (44) (where s is the Laplace operator). Since Z1 converges to zero as
m x1 m t → ∞, then x1 , x2 , and x3 will also converge to their desired
values as t → ∞.
Substituting u̇ by its value from (43), we get
Therefore, it can be concluded that the dynamic sliding-mode

controller guarantees the asymptotic convergence of the states
γ̇ = f˙1 + ġ1 u + − f˙1 − ġ1 u − m1 (f1 + g1 u) x1 , x2 , and x3 to their desired values.
  2 
C x3 k XI. E XPERIMENTS AND D ISCUSSIONS
− m2 − (δ0 − δ)
m x1 m
A series of step displacement reference commands is applied

to the feedforward compensated sliding-mode controller to
− m3 x2 − λ sign(γ) + m1 (f1 + g1 u) test its performance in each direction. The test results can be
observed from Fig. 26, and it shows that the system is stable
  2 
C x3 k and the settling time is less than 3–5 s for each step in the
+ m2 − (δ0 − δ) whole working range. The performance is much better than
m x1 m
the simple PID controller as shown in Fig. 18. To illustrate the
+ m3 x2 = −λ sign(γ). (45) tracking ability of the positioning stage, a circular trajectory of
600 μm in diameter is selected. Two sinusoidal displacements
The dynamics in (45) guarantees that the finite-time reach- of ±300 μm with a phase separation of 90◦ are applied to the
ability of γ converges to zero from given initial condition controller, and the response performance and the tracking error
γ(0) provided that the constant gain λ is chosen to be strictly can be viewed in Figs. 27 and 29(a). The maximal error can
positive. reach ±0.39 μm. Two much faster triangular signals with the
XIAO AND LI: OPTIMAL DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND CONTROL OF XY MICROPOSITIONING STAGE
Fig. 28. Reference and response of x- and y-directions for a linear contouring.
Fig. 29. Tracking performance. (a) Circular contour. (b) Linear contour.
same phase are applied to the controller in two directions to
realize a 45◦ tracking line as shown in Figs. 28 and 29(b).
It can be observed from Fig. 28 that the maximal tracking
errors may reach ±0.4 μm. The experiments show that the
inverse hysteresis compensator and the dynamic sliding-mode
controller well eliminate the hysteresis and nonlinear issues.
In the previous work on PZT driven system [24], the mi-
cromanipulator can reduce the p-p error to ±0.8 μm when
tracking a sinusoidal motion with 0.12 Hz in frequency, while
its working range is 117 μm × 117 μm. Compared with
that system, this electromagnetic driven stage can only reach
0.05 Hz for the high accurate positioning case, but the working
range can reach 1 mm × 1 mm which is much larger than the
PZT driven system. With respect to tracking accuracy and the
tracking velocity, the current stage can have better performance,
and the max errors and the rms errors are shown in Fig. 30
when tracking a line along a 45◦ direction. It can be observed
that the tracking errors are increasing rapidly along with the
tracking velocity increased. If the max error is required to be
limited within 0.1% of the whole working range, the velocity
has to be limited within 150 μm/s. In this research, the actuating
force is applied on the mobile stage directly. However, in the
work in [24], there are a lever amplifier and a second stage
to form a long driving force transmission path that will have
negative effect on the dynamic performance. The advantages
of the electromagnetic actuator driven system lie in that it can
reach a large working range and a faster operation velocity,
which are hard for a PZT driven system to obtain. It can be
observed from Fig. 30 that the rms error and max error are
smaller at a very low velocity across a wide range. If much
precise fast response sensors are adopted, much high precision
will be obtained definitely.
4625
Fig. 30. Max error and rms error when tracking a line along 45◦ direction
with different velocities.
XII. C ONCLUSION
A novel flexure-based XY micropositioning stage driven
by electromagnetic actuators is designed and fabricated. The
stage is featured with totally XY decoupled characteristics
using a double four-bar decoupled mechanism and four noncon-
tact electromagnetic actuators. The kinematics and dynamics
models are established for the mechanical system, and the
electromagnetic actuators are validated by FEA via ANSYS
software. The parameters are optimized via RBF NN-based
multiobjective GA optimal method. The controller performance
is evaluated and tested by the PID controller first, and the
preliminary study shows that the system behaves with hystere-
sis and nonlinear characteristics. An inverse hysteresis-based
feedforward controller is added to the sliding-mode controller
to eliminate the hysteresis and nonlinear characteristics of the
system. The close-loop controller experiments show that the
positioning range can reach ±500 μm with a resolution of
±0.4 μm.
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Shunli Xiao received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in electronic engineering and automotive engineer-
ing from the Chongqing University of Technology,
Chongqing, China, in 2002 and 2009, respectively.
He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in
electromechanical engineering at the University of
Macau, Taipa, Macau.
His main research interests include nonlinear
feedforward compensation control of hysteresis for
smart material actuators, optimal design, and visual
servo feedback control of micro-parallel manipulator
driven by piezoelectric or electromagnetic actuators.
Yangmin Li (M’98–SM’04) received the B.S. and
M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from Jilin
University, Changchun, China, in 1985 and 1988,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical
engineering from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China,
in 1994.
He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the
Electrical and Computer Engineering of Purdue Uni-
versity, West Lafayette, IN, in 1997. He is currently a
Full Professor of Electromechanical Engineering and
the Director of Academic Research at the Faculty
of Science Technology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau. He has authored
about 270 scientific papers and has served 110 international conference pro-
gram committees. His research interests include micro-/nanomanipulation,
nanorobotics, micromanipulator, mobile robot, modular robot, and multibody
dynamics and control.
Dr. Li currently serves as a Technical Editor of the IEEE/American Society
of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) T RANSACTIONS ON M ECHATRONICS, an
Associate Editor of the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATION S CIENCE
E NGINEERING, a council member and an Editor of the Chinese Journal of
Mechanical Engineering, and a member of the editorial board of the Interna-
tional Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems. He is a Macao Chapter
Cochair of the IEEE System, Man, and Cybernetics Society, and he is also a
representative of the IEEE SMC Society in the IEEE Nano Technology Council.
He is a member of ASME.