Due to the trend of miniaturization of devices, micromanipulation has been a hot topic in the last two decades. Unlike the macro world, the micro object is easy to be damaged if the contact force is not reliably detected and controlled. Hence, micro-force sensing is of great importance in micromanipulation, microassembly, medical applications, biomedical applications, materials science, dimension measurements and MEMS/NEMS for protecting micro-parts and micro-gripper from being damaged and ensuring the success of the manipulation process. This paper presents a survey of the recent methods of micro-force sensing. The working principle, detection accuracy, advantage and disadvantage of seven widely used force sensing methods are presented. Typical applications of each method in micro-assembly and micromanipulation are discussed. In addition, the comparisons among different kinds of force sensing approaches have been addressed. Moreover, another five promising micro-force sensing methods, which are confined to special component measurements or not widely used, are briefly introduced. Furthermore, two popular types of commercial micro-force sensors are listed to provide a guideline of selection for a specific application. The presented state-of-the-art overview is helpful to those engaged in micro-force sensing area to know the recent development and research tendency on micro-force sensing.

An overview of micro-force sensing techniques

Microfluidic Transport and Micro-scale Flow Physics: An Overview.- Mathematical Modeling of Electrokinetic Effects in Micro and Nano Fluidics.- Microscale Transport Processes and Interfacial Force Field Characterization in Micro-cooling Devices.- Bio-Microfluidics: Overview.- Perspectives of Micro and Nanofabrication of Carbon for Electrochemical and Microfluidic Applications.- Mechanical Micromanufacturing: An Overview.- Bio-Inspired Adhesion and Adhesives: Controlling Adhesion by Micro-Nano Structuring of Soft Surfaces.- Molecular Simulation: Can it Help in the Development of Micro and Nano Devices?.- Fabrication of Spring Steel and PDMS Grippers for the Micromanipulation of Biological Cells.

Microfluidics and microfabrication

During past two decades many efforts have been made by different researchers in developing robotic grippers. Some of these grippers are robust and used for handling large objects. On the contrary, certain grippers are adroit enough even to handle biological cells. Wide varieties of grippers are now-a-days available featuring different kinematic ability, dexterity, mode of actuation, usage of sensors, maximum weight carrying capabilities and many more attributes. But they all accord to a single issue, i.e. inspiration. In recent years some compliant grippers have been developed but the crucial issue of controlling them still remains a topic of discussion. In this paper a novel design have been proposed which enables us having the force information from the gripper structure itself which in turn will contribute in controlling the gripper properly.

Design and control of two fingered compliant gripper for micro gripping

Robotic grippers and its control is always a challenging and an interesting topic for the researcher. In the present scenario the most advanced gripping devices which are commercially available are of macro size. But the real challenge comes when we think for micro gripping or micro assembly. This paper represents a novel technique of gripping with Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) actuated finger and advance communication process with the help of joystick and data glove. This technique gives an advantage to control a micro gripping device from a remote location. End effectors are made of IPMC. IPMC is one of the Electro Active Polymer (EAPs) which holds an excellent bending property at low actuation voltage resulting in high force output, thus it is capable of doing work as good as human finger tip when the same is employed as an actuator for micromanipulation. This device can manipulate micro object less than 1 mm in diameter as well as macro sized object within 10 mm diameter. This finger design is compliant in nature. In this article the underlying principle based on which the gripper operates and its fabrication process are explained in detail. It involves miniature part handling, integration and assembly operation.

Gesture based control of IPMC actuated gripper

Compliant micromechanisms (CMMs) acquire mobility from the deflection of elastic members and have been proven to be robust by millions of silicon MEMS devices. However, the limited deflection of silicon impedes the realization of more sophisticated CMMs, which often require larger deflections. Recently, some novel manufacturing processes have emerged but are not well known by the community. In this paper, the realization of CMMs is reviewed, aiming to provide help to mechanical designers to quickly find the proper realization method for their CMM designs. To this end, the literature surveyed was classified and statistically analyzed, and representative processes were summarized individually to reflect the state of the art of CMM manufacturing. Furthermore, the features of each process were collected into tables to facilitate the reference of readers, and the guidelines for process selection were discussed. The review results indicate that, even though the silicon process remains dominant, great progress has been made in the development of polymer-related and composite-related processes, such as micromolding, SU-8 process, laser ablation, 3D printing, and the CNT frameworking. These processes result in constituent materials with a lower Young’s modulus and larger maximum allowable strain than silicon, and therefore allow larger deflection. The geometrical capabilities (e.g., aspect ratio) of the realization methods should also be considered, because different types of CMMs have different requirements. We conclude that the SU-8 process, 3D printing, and carbon nanotube frameworking will play more important roles in the future owing to their excellent comprehensive capabilities.

/pdf/micro-scale-realization-of-compliant-mechanisms-4j4moslqtk.pdf

Micro-scale Realization of Compliant Mechanisms: Manufacturing Processes and Constituent Materials—A Review

A biological cell is considered and studied as a mechanical entity today with important implications in diagnostics and therapeutics. This article describes the opportunities and challenges in using mechanical grippers in manipulating and characterizing isolated biological cells and embryos. Direct mechanical manipulation of cells has some advantages over a wide variety of techniques used in the study of cell-mechanics. Hence, we begin with a brief overview of currently used techniques and then describe the gripper-based cell-manipulation. Five aspects concerning the miniature grippers for cells are addressed here: design, materials, fabrication, force-sensing, and actuation. It is shown that systematic topology and shape optimization techniques help in designing the stiffness of the grippers to match that of the cells. Materials considered here are metals and polymers rather than just silicon. This choice of material warrants new manufacturing techniques at the meso (100 μm to cm) scale. While economic fabrication without the expensive overhead of silicon-based fabrication is the motivating factor for developing meso-scale manufacturing techniques for metals and polymers, we argue here that there are actually some other advantages in terms of functionality and performance. They arise in the context of actuating the gripper in cell’s native aqueous environment and sensing the forces exerted on the cell. We describe here a minimally intrusive force-sensing technique that does not need any specialized sensor other than the gripper itself. All of the above are made possible by compliant mechanisms, which are simply elastically deformable structures. They can be designed systematically to specifications; made with any flexible material; manufactured at any size; actuated in many ways and easily; and used as sensors. The last aspect, the sensing, needs computation as it uses the visually measured deformations to deduce the forces. Two inverse problems in elasticity are mentioned in this regard. While the first inverse problem helps in estimating forces, the second one helps in estimating the inhomogeneous mechanical properties inside the cell. It is argued that this requires dexterous manipulation of cells—a capability not usually shared by other cell-manipulation techniques.

Fabrication of Spring Steel and PDMS Grippers for the Micromanipulation of Biological Cells

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Fabrication of Spring Steel and PDMS Grippers for the Micromanipulation of Biological Cells