Abstract: The compliant micromanipulator requires very high positioning accuracy, which mainly depends on its static stiffness. Aiming at the shortcomings in existing analysis for static stiffness of compliant micromanupulators, compliance matrix method in structural analysis is applied. To specify it, compliance models of the flexible elements are determined firstly; the static stiffness matrix of the end-effector in relation to the reference coordinate system is obtained through the transformations of a series of different coordinate systems and the establishment of equilibriums of displacements and forces in unit nodes of the robot. At last, taken a 3DOF parallel compliant micromanipulator for instance, its static stiffness is discussed. The analysis show that the result by using compliance matrix method is very rapid as well as more approach to the essence of compliant mechanisms.

Key words: Compliance matrix, Compliant mechanism, Flexure hinge, Micromanipulator, Static stiffness