ROMI: Design and Experimental Evaluation of a Linear Delta Robotic System for High-Precision Applications

In this paper, the design and experimental evaluation of a parallel robotic system based on a linear delta geometry is presented. The design considers the requirements for high-precision applications including workspace, motion resolution, and payload. The entire design process includes robot kinematics, control, and optimization, resulting in the demonstration of a working device. The robot structure offers a versatile and simplified design when compared with state-of-the-art devices being able to be adapted to perform different tasks while keeping the advantages of high precision with reduced complexity. The presented robot prototype was constructed and evaluated experimentally through three proof-of-concept experiments mimicking tasks requiring high motion precision such as microsurgery, semiconductor testing, and optical device alignment. The obtained results in the three experimental scenarios validate that the here-proposed design can achieve an average motion precision of ~3.3 ± 0.3 μm with varying load conditions, thus confirming its potential to be used for high-precision tasks in industrial and medical settings.