Rapidly Prototyped Orthotweezers for Automated Microassembly

We describe the design, fabrication, and testing of an ultra-low cost orthotweezers system for microassembly. By utilizing rapid prototyping technology, compliant mechanisms, and commodity-grade actuators and sensors, we significantly reduce the complexity and cost of the previous Orthotweezers system without sacrificing functionality. With a force resolution of 0.7mN and a worst case mean positioning repeatability of 23 mum, the system is capable of dexterously manipulating rectangular parts with dimensions 200 mum times 200 mum times 100 mum. Such blocks can then be temporarily attached to thin, delicate, or oddly shaped parts to enable handling and ultimately assembly of micromechanical structures. Strategies for using compliance to compensate for uncertainty introduced by less expensive fabrication methods, actuators, and sensors are also discussed.

[1]  D. Stewart,et al.  A Platform with Six Degrees of Freedom , 1965 .

[2]  Ronald S. Fearing,et al.  Simplified Grasping and Manipulation with Dextrous Robot Hands , 1984, 1984 American Control Conference.

[3]  R. Merz,et al.  Shape Deposition Manufacturing , 1994 .

[4]  Richard M. Murray,et al.  A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation , 1994 .

[5]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  PROTOTYPING MILLIROBOTS USING DEXTROUS MICROASSEMBLY AND FOLDING , 2000 .

[6]  Mikio Horie,et al.  Development of miniature pantograph mechanisms with large deflective hinges for new surface mount systems , 2000, Design, Test, Integration, and Packaging of MEMS/MOEMS.

[7]  Ronald S. Fearing,et al.  Automating microassembly with ortho-tweezers and force sensing , 2001, Proceedings 2001 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Expanding the Societal Role of Robotics in the the Next Millennium (Cat. No.01CH37180).

[8]  Sridhar Kota,et al.  DESIGN OF LARGE-DISPLACEMENT COMPLIANT JOINTS , 2005 .

[9]  Yantao Shen,et al.  Networked human/robot cooperative environment for tele-assembly of MEMS devices , 2006 .

[10]  William L. Cleghorn,et al.  Vision-based measurement of microassembly forces , 2006 .

[11]  Ronald S. Fearing,et al.  A rapidly prototyped 2-axis positioning stage for microassembly using large displacement compliant mechanisms , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..

[12]  P. Dario,et al.  Design and fabrication of an electrostatically driven microgripper for blood vessel manipulation , 2006 .

[13]  Bradley J. Nelson,et al.  A micro-particle positioning technique combining an ultrasonic manipulator and a microgripper , 2006 .

[14]  M. Sitti,et al.  Two-dimensional vision-based autonomous microparticle manipulation using a nanoprobe , 2006 .