Robotic micro-assembly of scaffold/cell constructs with a shape memory alloy gripper

Describes an integrated approach to design and fabricate scaffold/cell constructs for tissue engineering. With this approach it becomes possible to produce scaffolds with controlled distribution of living cells and growth factors, a critical condition for successful grafting. Our idea consists of building a scaffold/cell construct by robotic micro-assembly of microscopic polymer building blocks. The paper introduces the rationale and concept of this interdisciplinary project and presents some realized steps. A 3D contact FEM simulation has been carried out to study the forces involved on the scaffold elements and micro-gripper during assembly. An error analysis has been performed to evaluate the accumulated error when building a scaffold/cell construct. A dedicated monolithic shape memory alloy micro-gripper has been realized and tested, which is able to handle parts in the range of 50-100 microns.

[1]  D. Hutmacher,et al.  Scaffolds in tissue engineering bone and cartilage. , 2000, Biomaterials.

[2]  Han Zhang,et al.  Shape memory alloy microgripper for robotic microassembly of tissue engineering scaffolds , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[3]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Adaptable vision/motion coordination for a robot , 1994, Proceedings of PerAc '94. From Perception to Action.

[4]  K. Roberts,et al.  Thesis , 2002 .

[5]  Rieko Osu,et al.  Measuring Stiffness During Arm Movements in Various Dynamic Environments , 1999, Dynamic Systems and Control.

[6]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  fMRI Compatible Haptic Interfaces to Investigate Human Motor Control , 2006, ISER.

[7]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Collaborative wheelchair assistant , 2002, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[8]  Keng Peng Tee,et al.  Investigating motor adaptation to stable and unstable tasks using haptic interfaces, EMG and fMRI , 2003, SICE 2003 Annual Conference (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8734).

[9]  ES Boy,et al.  Motion guidance experiments with Scooter Cobot , 2003, 11th Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems, 2003. HAPTICS 2003. Proceedings..

[10]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  A body-oriented method for finding a linear form of the dynamic equation of fully parallel robots , 1997, Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[11]  K.P. Tee,et al.  How are internal models of unstable tasks formed? , 2004, The 26th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[12]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Dynamics and control of an MRI compatible master-slave system with hydrostatic transmission , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[13]  Yves Bellouard,et al.  Design and highly accurate 3D displacement characterization of monolithic SMA microgripper using computer vision , 1998, Other Conferences.

[14]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Hybrid IDM/Impedance learning in human movements , 2001 .

[15]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Design of a haptic forceps for microsurgery training , 2004 .

[16]  Chee Leong Teo,et al.  The Learning Cobot , 2002 .

[17]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Experiments in nonlinear adaptive control , 1997, Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[18]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Multisensory learning cues using analytical collision detection between a needle and a tube , 2004, 12th International Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems, 2004. HAPTICS '04. Proceedings..

[19]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  A method for expecting the features of objects and enabling real-time vision processing , 1996, Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. IROS '96.

[20]  Fei Wang,et al.  Multi-scale simulation for microsurgery trainer , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[21]  E. Burdet,et al.  Three Learning Architectures to Improve Robot Control: a Comparison , 1995 .

[22]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Design of a simple MRI/fMRI compatible force/torque sensor , 2004, 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37566).

[23]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Adaptation of the visuo-motor coordination , 1996, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[24]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Adaptive control of the Hexaglide, a 6 dof parallel manipulator , 1997, Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[25]  Etienne Burdet,et al.  Algorithms of human motor control and their implementation in robotics , 1996 .

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

[27]  T. Poston,et al.  MULTI-SCALE SIMULATION FOR A ROBOTIC SURGICAL TRAINER , 2002 .

[28]  Yves Bellouard,et al.  Local annealing of complex mechanical devices: a new approach for developing monolithic micro-devices , 1999 .