Patent ID: 8754571

Claim:
A two-axis inertial positioner comprising: a base ( 1 ); an actuator assembly ( 3 ) having two small displacement. incrementally hi-directional actuators of a type selected from the group consisting of piezoelectric and magnetostrictive actuators, the actuators being operational along respective orthogonal axes and mounted to said base; a carrier ( 4 ) mounted to said actuator assembly and having a friction surface; a platform ( 5 ) having a friction surface in contact with the friction surface of said carrier ( 4 ) and being movable relative to said carrier by sliding, reciprocal, two directional displacement between said friction surfaces produced by said actuators in said actuator assembly according to the slip-stick principle; an alignment cartridge ( 7 ) mounted to said platform ( 5 ) by means of a first roller bearing having an axis of motion corresponding to one of the two operational axes of said actuator assembly ( 3 ); and a clamp block ( 9 ) mounted to said alignment cartridge ( 7 ) by means of a second roller bearing having an axis of motion corresponding to the other of said operational axes of said actuator assembly ( 3 ).