Modular design method applied to a micromanipulation station.

A new method for the design of micromanufacturing systems is developed. This method, based on modularity, combines a top-down approach of production systems with a bottom-up approach to take into account the specific constraints of the technologies and know-how in the microworld. To execute an assembly task, we need operative devices and scenario adapted to the manipulation. These elements are encapsulated into a constituent module. For that, we have defined several types of basic modules that depend on to the technology support. The proposed strategy allows many possibilities of operative architecture to assemble different types of product and to exchange the different modules when the results of the micromanipulation are not satisfactory. Thus, when the failure rate is too high, it is possible to change the actuator or to modify the control strategy or to include an additional element. This paper reports the proposed concept, presents its application to a micromanipulation station developed in our research group. The station is composed of two microrobots which work in cooperation to execute pick-and-place sequences of parts measuring between 200 μm to 500 μm. The performance criterion is focused on the success of the operation in automatic mode.