Cooperative Micromanipulators for 3D Micromanipulation and Assembly

Abstract

In this paper we demonstrate coordinated control of multiple micromanipulators for use in automated 3D micromanipulation and assembly tasks. We build on our previous work on caging micromanipulation by using a similar methodology and extend it to the 3D case. Simultaneous movements of the coordinated micromanipulators normal to the caging polygon allows for the transition of 2D planar micro-caging grasps to micro-force closure grasps suitable for 3D micro-transporting tasks. Experimental results illustrate the success and accuracies of both the micro-grasps’ transitions and 3D pick-and-place tasks. Finally, the new 3D transportation primitive is used in conjunction with our previous 2D micromanipulation primitives and an encoded XY stage to semi-autonomously execute some representative 3D microassembly tasks.