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Until now, the size range of most machines for precision assembly was much larger than the size of the pieces to be handled or the necessary workspace. Flexibly scalable miniaturised production machines can help to develop much more flexible micro production systems. The paper aims to describe the development of a micro‐parallel‐SCARA robot adapted in size to MEMS products.

The robot consists of a miniaturised parallel structure, which provides a high level of accuracy in a workspace of 60 × 45 × 20 mm³. It has a base area of 130 × 170 mm² and offers four degrees of freedom.

Based on simulations, the degree of miniaturisation in terms of a smaller structure and a high level of accuracy is determined. The results show that a miniaturised hybrid robot with a plane parallel structure driven by miniaturised zero‐backlash gears and electric motors can reach a theoretical repeatability better than 1 μm.

The first prototype provides good prospects that the concept will be used in a visionary desktop‐factory. As regards the accuracy parameters of the robot, there will be further efforts to optimise the robot's structure and drive mechanism.

The repeatability of this first prototype is better than 14 μm. A better stiffness of optimised micro‐gears and joints of the structure will guarantee a much better repeatability.

The paper illustrates that the Parvus is one of the smallest industrial robots for micro assembly equipped with a full range of functionalities like conventional industrial robots.

This paper presents a concept for a micro‐assembly station and shows different possibilities for increasing the positioning accuracy. The main part of the station consists of a spatial parallel structure with three translational degrees of freedom. An additional rotational axis is integrated into the working platform. This structure is constructed with low friction joints, which are nearly free of backlash. The construction of these high precision joints is presented and the characteristics of the robot such as workspace and resolution are discussed. After this an approach for increasing the accuracy of parallel robots by integrating flexure hinges into the structure is described.

This paper discusses the lives and contributions of five key members of the Management History Division: Arthur G. Bedeian; Alfred A. Bolton; James C. Worthy (now deceased); Charles D. Wrege; and Daniel A. Wren. Each has proved himself a teacher and intellectual leader in matters of fundamental concern to management history.