VIRAM: A Virtual Reality Environment for the Assembly of Micro Devices

The physical assembly of micron-sized parts is referred to as micro assembly. This paper discusses the creation of a virtual prototyping environment to study and facilitate the assembly of micro devices. The preliminary environment has been implemented using VRML 2.0 on a windows platform. The physical micro assembly system which was used as the target system to model includes a micro gripper, a linear micro-positioner, an assembly platen, a 3 axis micro positioner, cameras and a fixture mounted for the gripper. A description of the various stages involved in the creation of the virtual reality based environment is also described in this paper.© 2004 ASME