Aerostatic bearings design and analysis with the application to precision engineering: State-of-the-art and future perspectives

Aerostatic bearings have been employed as an essential precision engineering element and enabling technology in numerous applications requiring precision and ultraprecision motions. This review paper aims at presenting the state-of-the-art in aerostatic bearings research and development with the emphasis on analytical and computational approaches for design and optimization of bearing performance, and further critically reviewing their future research directions and development trends in the coming decade and beyond. The paper is concluded with the discussion on the future trends and challenges in the aerostatic bearings research, and their applications and potential in precision engineering industries.