Development of a force controlled nanocutting system using a flexible mechanism for adaptive cutting of microstructures on non-planar surfaces

Abstract A force controlled nanocutting system based on a flexible mechanism was developed. Instead of utilizing force sensors, the force sensing and control in the developed system is realized by sensing and controlling the deformation of the flexible mechanism. With force feedback control for controlling the cutting force in real time, this system could achieve adaptive cutting along non-planar surfaces without prior knowledge about the surface shape. The finite element method was used to model the flexible mechanism and a Pareto-based multi-objective optimization algorithm with the goals of high force resolution and stability was used to obtain the geometric parameters of the flexible mechanism. During the cutting processing, a capacitive displacement sensor was used to detect the deformation of the flexible mechanism to measure the force in real time, and a piezoelectric ceramic actuator was used to adjust the feed position of the tool to control the cutting force. Nanocutting experiments of microstructures were successfully carried out on inclined and curved surfaces of ductile as well as brittle materials without prior knowledge of their surface forms.