Mesoscale to microscale controlled manipulation of microscale objectsusing MEMS based microgripper and haptic interface

摘要

In this work, we describe the development and testing of a three degree of freedom (DOF) meso/micro manipulation system for handling biological cells (SF-9) and micro objects. Three axis control is obtained using stepper motors coupled to three micromanipulators. One motor is coupled to a linear X-stage which holds the test specimen. The remaining two stepper motors are coupled to Y and Z axis micromanipulators. The stepper motor – micromanipulator arrangement has minimum step resolution of ~0.45μm with a total travel of 10mm and the stepper motor – X stage arrangement has a minimum resolution of ~0.3μm. The shaft end of the micromanipulator has a commercially available electrostatic MEMS microgripper from FemtotoolsTM which has a gripping range of 0 – 100μm. As the gripping action is performed, a commercially available 3 DOF haptic device (Novint Falcon) is programmed to give force feedback to the user. Both mesoscale and microscale control are important, as mesoscale control is required for the travel motion of the test object whereas microscale control is required for the gripping action. A LabView based system is used to control the position of the microgripper, to control the opening of the microgripper, and to provide force-feedback through the haptic.