Actuated Tweezers for Precision Microassembly

Abstract

Sandia National Laboratories is exploring assembling micro, meso, and miniature scale parts into a variety of tiny devices. These devices are comprised of parts ranging from tens of microns to a few millimeters in size. In support of this activity, a rapid prototyping assembly workstation that enables an operator to assemble three-dimensional devices with a minimum of fixturing has been developed. This workstation consists of precision robotics, stages, cameras, and sensors integrated in a way that facilitates human interaction. Although many of the workstation components are commercially available, no inexpensive and durable grippers of suitably large range of motion could be found. This paper describes the design and testing of a novel micro gripper based on precision tweezers and actuated with a micro servo that has proven extremely useful for the operator directed assembly of micro scale devices.