Towards fully-automated micrograsping for microassembly

Fully automated microassembly procedure has become an essential subject of interest among microsystem researchers due to the promising potential of the establishment of fully functional Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) devices and significant cost reduction on large number of consumer based products once the system is realized. In the heart of microassembly, the development of high precision micrograsping technique for dexterous manipulation of minute parts becomes the key factor which determines the success of microassembly process. This paper presents the development of a microgripper for the purpose of manipulating micro sized objects in precision environment. The gripper is realized based on compliant mechanism concept that uses flexure hinge to replace the traditional rigid hinge due to its favorable advantages of eliminating the backlash and coulomb friction problems. Modeling of this gripper was performed utilizing a combination of Pseudo Rigid Body Model (PRBM) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) which effectively accelerates the prototyping procedure. The gripper was cut out of aluminum plate using electro-discharge machining (EDM) technique and experimental studies were conducted to investigate the performance as well as for model verification. The result between experiment and computational analysis has shown high degree of agreement. High displacement amplification was successfully recorded and maximum stroke of 100 mum can be achieved.

[1]  R. Muller,et al.  Silicon-processed overhanging microgripper , 1992 .

[2]  Sang-Gook Kim,et al.  Large-strain, piezoelectric, in-plane micro-actuator , 2004, 17th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. Maastricht MEMS 2004 Technical Digest.

[3]  Branislav Borovac,et al.  A platform for micropositioning based on piezo legs , 2001 .

[4]  Bijan Shirinzadeh,et al.  Enhanced sliding mode motion tracking control of piezoelectric actuators , 2007 .

[5]  Bijan Shirinzadeh,et al.  An autowave based methodology for deformable object simulation , 2006, Comput. Aided Des..

[6]  Annika Raatz,et al.  Pseudoelastic flexure hinges in robots for microassembly , 2000, SPIE Optics East.

[7]  Bijan Shirinzadeh,et al.  Soft tissue modelling through autowaves for surgery simulation , 2006, Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing.

[8]  Bijan Shirinzadeh,et al.  Sliding-Mode Enhanced Adaptive Motion Tracking Control of Piezoelectric Actuation Systems for Micro/Nano Manipulation , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.

[9]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Monolithic shape memory alloy microgripper for 3D assembly of tissue engineering scaffolds , 2001, Optics East.

[10]  Kwang-Cheol Lee,et al.  Fabrication of an Electrothermally Actuated Electrostatic Microgripper , 2002 .

[11]  Zhaowei Zhong,et al.  A microgripper using piezoelectric actuation for micro-object manipulation , 2007 .

[12]  Bijan Shirinzadeh,et al.  Robust motion tracking control of piezo-driven flexure-based four-bar mechanism for micro/nano manipulation , 2008 .

[13]  Annika Raatz,et al.  Performance of Pseudo-Elastic Flexure Hinges in Parallel Robots for Micro-Assembly Tasks , 2004 .

[14]  Nicolae Lobontiu,et al.  Corner-Filleted Flexure Hinges , 2001 .

[15]  R. T. Howe,et al.  Nickel-filled Hexsil Thermally Actuated Tweezers , 1995, Proceedings of the International Solid-State Sensors and Actuators Conference - TRANSDUCERS '95.

[16]  Sylvain Ballandras,et al.  Mechanical characterization of microgrippers realized by LIGA technique , 1997, Proceedings of International Solid State Sensors and Actuators Conference (Transducers '97).

[17]  R. Howe,et al.  Hexsil tweezers for teleoperated micro-assembly , 1997, Proceedings IEEE The Tenth Annual International Workshop on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. An Investigation of Micro Structures, Sensors, Actuators, Machines and Robots.

[18]  Chih-Liang Chu,et al.  A novel long-travel piezoelectric-driven linear nanopositioning stage , 2006 .

[19]  Bijan Shirinzadeh,et al.  A systematic technique to estimate positioning errors for robot accuracy improvement using laser interferometry based sensing , 2005 .

[20]  Stephane Regnier,et al.  Electrostatic actuated micro gripper using an amplification mechanism , 2004 .

[21]  Yoshihiko Suzuki.  Fabrication and Evaluation of Flexible Microgripper , 1994 .

[22]  Ren Jung Chang,et al.  Application of piezo-driven polymer microgripper in automatic transportation of micro object , 2005, IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics, 2005. ICM '05..

[23]  A. Harnisch,et al.  Microgrippers created in microstructurable glass , 1997 .