Design of a microelectromechanical systems microgripper with integrated electrothermal actuator and force sensor

Abstract

This article presents the conceptual design of a novel compliant microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based gripper with integrated electrothermal actuator and electrothermal force sensor. By this design solution, the device possesses some unique characteristics including a small and compact footprint size, and a large driving force by the thermal actuator. Owing to the use of a compliant rotational bearing, a large gripping range is obtained. The sensing arm has a capability of detecting the force transmitted from the left arm so as to prevent the damage of the grasped object. Analytical models are developed to evaluate the statics and dynamics performance of the gripper. Simulation results show that the thermal actuator produces sufficient gripping force to execute the gripping operation with a range of 80 mm under a low input voltage of 6 V. Moreover, the results of the established theoretical models match well with the finite element analysis (FEA) simulation results, which verifies the feasibility of the proposed gripper design.

Novel Electrothermal Microgrippers Based on a Rotary Actuator System

“…A similar performance was observed for the U-beam-like microactuator with four beams, but with a lower error range, where the largest errors corresponded to the same variables; at the same voltage level, the corresponding values were 21.91% and 42.21%. For the last actuator, force and displacement parameters were within an acceptable range, as they were the within the range of values found in the state of the art reported in relation to the modeling and simulation results because of boundary conditions, temperature effects, and material properties [6,31].…”

“…Their use has improved the level of comfort in various areas, such as automotive and residential, and has allowed for the monitoring of environmental variables, improving safety conditions, among many other applications, which are constantly emerging. Recently, new, or optimized microactuators [1,2] have been reported, such as micropositioners [3,4], microswitches [5], microgrippers [6,7], piezoelectric devices [8,9], microgenerators [10,11], micropumps [12], and bimorph actuator [13,14].…”

Review of Electrothermal Actuators and Applications

“…While the V-chevron can produce large output force, the Z-chevron is capable of producing larger displacement at small beam dimensions. The Z-shape actuator was used in the concept design of microgrippers in [93]. Another application was a 2 degrees-of-freedom nanopositioner, presented in Figure 8d [94], which was fabricated in a standard MetalMUMPs process with nickel as the structural material.…”

MEMS-based platforms for mechanical manipulation and characterization of cells

“…The dynamic range of this new Z-beam actuator is exper imentally demonstrated to be more than 20 µm. Yang and Xu [62] proposed a conceptual design of a MEMS microgripper consisting of a Z-beam electrothermal actuator and an electrothermal force sensor. Simulations were performed to show that this microgripper can provide a large grasping range of 80 µm at a low input voltage of 6 V. Microgrippers with Z-beam electrothermal actuators have not been applied to cell manipulation.…”