Compensation for five DOF motion errors of hydrostatic feed table by utilizing actively controlled capillaries

Five DOF motion errors of a hydrostatic bearing table driven by a coreless type linear motor were compensated by utilizing actively controlled capillaries in the present research. The motion errors of horizontal translation and yaw were compensated simultaneously with the two actively controlled capillaries, and those of vertical translation, pitch and roll were compensated simultaneously with the three actively controlled capillaries. The actively controlled capillaries were designed and their gains were adjusted by conducting micro step response tests. The five DOF motion errors were measured ultra-precisely by combining three measuring methods as follows. The yaw and pitch errors were measured with a laser interferometer, and the roll error was measured by the reversal method. Then, the translational motion errors in the horizontal and vertical directions were measured by the sequential two-point method, where influence of the angular motion errors on the translational measurement was compensated by utilizing the measured angular motion errors. By utilizing the developed capillaries and the combined measuring methods and by applying the iterative control, the motion errors of the horizontal translation, the vertical translation, the yaw, the pitch and the roll were compensated simultaneously and reduced significantly from 0.16 μm, 0.18 μm, 1.96 arcsec, 2.26 arcsec and 0.14 arcsec to 0.02 μm, 0.03 μm, 0.03 arcsec, 0.07 arcsec and 0.02 arcsec, respectively. The remaining motion errors were less than the measuring repeatabilities which were ±0.02 μm for the translational motion errors and ±0.05 arcsec for the angular motion errors. The results show that the present method is not only practical but also effective to realize the ultra-precision feed motion whose accuracy is equal to the currently reachable measuring accuracy.