Design and Experimental Investigations of Shape and Attitude Carding System for the Wires of Micro Coreless Motor Winding

The shape and attitude (S&A) of the electrode wire are important characteristics of micro coreless motor winding. The purpose of this paper is to present the design of a robotic micro-manipulation system for micro wire carding with arbitrary S&A, which can be used as the pretreatment system for wire micro-gripper systems. The system is based on the principle of flexible carding, and uses nylon, bristle, nanometer-silk and wool as materials for the brushing micro-manipulator. The trajectory of the brushing micro-manipulator is designed, and the S&A of the electrode wires are straightened through the combined motion mode of horizontal and vertical brushing micro-manipulators. The experimental results show that the material of the brushing micro-manipulator has a great impact on the carding quality. Nanometer-silk material is more suitable for horizontal brushing micro-manipulators, and wool material is more suitable for vertical brushing micro-manipulators. The geometric dimension of the brushing micro-manipulator also affects the carding quality. When the diameter is in the range of 1 mm, the carding effect of the horizontal brushing micro-manipulator with a length of 4.9–8 mm is better. The system can realize the automatic carding of flexible electrode wires with arbitrary S&A, and it will not damage the structure of wires in the process.

Femtosecond laser programmed artificial musculoskeletal systems

Natural musculoskeletal systems have been widely recognized as an advanced robotic model for designing robust yet flexible microbots. However, the development of artificial musculoskeletal systems at micro-nanoscale currently remains a big challenge, since it requires precise assembly of two or more materials of distinct properties into complex 3D micro/nanostructures. In this study, we report femtosecond laser programmed artificial musculoskeletal systems for prototyping 3D microbots, using relatively stiff SU-8 as the skeleton and pH-responsive protein (bovine serum albumin, BSA) as the smart muscle. To realize the programmable integration of the two materials into a 3D configuration, a successive on-chip two-photon polymerization (TPP) strategy that enables structuring two photosensitive materials sequentially within a predesigned configuration was proposed. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate a pH-responsive spider microbot and a 3D smart micro-gripper that enables controllable grabbing and releasing. Our strategy provides a universal protocol for directly printing 3D microbots composed of multiple materials.

A Novel Micro Gripper-based Manipulation System for a Single μLED Array

μLED has advantages in brightness, power consumption and response speed. In addition, μLED can also be used as micro sensors implanted in the body via flexible electronic skin. One of the key technology is the transfer printing of μLED. Although numerous methods have been proposed for transfer printing technology, improving the yield of μLED array is still a formidable task. In this paper, we proposed a novel method in improving the yield of μLED array, transferred by the stamping method, using an innovative design of piezoelectric driven asymmetric micro gripper. A μLED manipulation system was constructed based on a micro gripper of a three dimensional positioning system. The experimental results showed that this system could be used to manipulate μLED array.

Study and Design of Micro Gripper Driven by Electrothermal V - Shaped Actuator

This paper presents a design, calculation, simulation and fabrication of micro gripper driven by the electrothermal V-shaped actuator. The working principle of the V-shaped actuator bases on the thermal expansion of a thin beam when applying a voltage. The advantages of this design are large displacement amplification factor, large driving force, low voltage, simple configuration and control. The maximum displacement of each jaw can be up to 40µm at the calculated voltage of 17.35V and low operating frequency. Simulating displacement of the micro gripper in ANSYS multiphysics shows an average voltage deviation of 5.98% in comparison with calculation at the same displacement. The micro gripper has been fabricated successfully by using MEMS technology and SOI wafer. Measured result confirmed positive features of the system such as large displacement and low driving voltage (i.e. low power consumption). The next step, it can be integrated in micro-robot or in micro assembling systems to clamp and lift the micro/nano samples.