Non-contact Micromanipulation by Bilateral Control

A laser micromanipulator is suitable for non-contact manipulation of a small object, such as a bacteria and microbe, in the closed space. However, laser trapping has two serious problems to control a living microbe. One is the damage caused by direct irradiation of high power laser to the target, and the other is the weakness of the trapping force, which causes swerving of the target from the desired transportation trajectory by disturbances. For safe and secure transportation of the microbe, we proposed to transport a microbe with micro tools trapped by the laser. Here we developed a measurement system of the laser trapping force using a quadrant photo detector (QPD) . We analyzed the measurement area of the QPD and calibrated the trap stiffness. Then we applied the bilateral control to the laser micromanipulation of the micro tool. The operator can feel the magnified force of the laser micromanip-ulation through the master arm. Finally, we demonstrated the indirect micromanipulation of the Yeast using laser manipulated micro tool.