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ABSTRACT: In this paper, we describe the development of an orthogonal microrobot for accurate microscopic operations. To conduct the
microscopic operation, a simple locomotion mechanism composed of one piezoelectric actuator and two U-shaped electromagnets
is proposed. The orthogonal microrobot can move precisely in one-axis with the manner of an inchworm. We use permanent magnets
so that this robot can fix itself on a steel surface when no voltage is applied. To provide XY orthogonal positioning, we connect one microrobot to another microrobot orthogonally. To realize cell processing, we arrange
the three two-axial orthogonal microrobots on an inverted microscope. We load a simple micropump on right and left robots
to hold biological samples such as an egg cell and to inject reagent solutions into biological samples. Finally, we arrange
another microrobot between the other two microrobots to position samples. The whole cell processing device is very small,
so we can easily set up the whole device to microprocessing instruments. In experiments, orthogonal microrobots succeeded
in holding an egg cell with a diameter of 100μm and sticking the pipette with a diameter of 5μm into the egg cell under
a specific GUI control system with a visual feedback function.
Journal of Micro-Nano Mechatronics 10/2008; 4(1):85-93.
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2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2008, May 19-23, 2008, Pasadena, California, USA; 01/2008
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2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, September 22-26, 2008, Acropolis Convention Center, Nice, France; 01/2008
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Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2001, May 21-26, 2001, Seoul, Korea; 01/2001
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ABSTRACT: In this paper, we describe flexible microprocessing organized by versatile microrobots under microscopes. Versatile microrobots composed of four piezo elements and two electromagnets can move on steel surface with nanometer resolution. And the spherical micro manipulator that the steel ball supported by three piezo actuators are incorporated into the small robot to handle the micro size objects. In the first part of this report, the piezo based micro robot and the spherical micro manipulator are described and these basic performances such as manipulation resolution are checked by the primary experiments. In the next part, it is described that three versatile microrobots are developed and manipulate small objects in cooperation with each other. One microrobot which has a sample stage can transport samples at the microscope focus point precisely. Other two microrobots which have the spherical manipulator can handle small objects accurately. This collaboration of versatile microrobots under microscopes succeeds in providing accurate microprocessing performance with low cost and much of flexibility. Finally as an practical application, it is successfully demonstrated that the insect body are disassembled by these microrobots.
