Due to the countless drop in friction, lubrication, as well as accumulation problems, Compliant tools have become a perfect replacement for rigid - joints in micro and nano applications and have increasing importance in industrial fields. Compliant mechanisms transform force or motion through the deformation of their structural members. Compliant mechanisms have gained popularity in micro and nano-engineering, aerospace, smart structures, Opto - mechatronics, healthcare, and semiconductor equipment. The significant demand for compliant mechanisms in a variability of applications encouraged the development of design methods. Along with the developed designs, actuators and sensors continuously evolved to acquire precise positioning. In micro-positioning, a large group of XY stage actuators are found, but nowadays, actuators with stage XYZ and stage XYθ (3 - DOF) are popular, especially in a robotics application. Furthermore, the sensors also evolved more sensitive and reliable. The current compliant system comes with the integrated actuator and embedded sensing element. This paper briefly overviews the development of topology optimization techniques, sensors, and actuators for the past decades. © 2022 Author(s).