Force feedback pushing scheme for micromanipulation applications

Abstract

Pushing micro-objects using point contact provides more flexibility and less complexity compared to pick and place operation. Due to the fact that in micro-world surface forces are much more dominant than inertial forces and these forces are distributed unevenly, pushing through the center of mass of the micro-object may not yield a pure translational motion. In order to translate a micro-object, the line of pushing should pass through the center of friction. In this paper, a semi-autonomous scheme based on hybrid vision/force feedback procedure is proposed to push micro-objects with human assistance using a custom built tele-micromanipulation setup to achieve translational motion. In the semi-autonomous pushing process, velocity controlled pushing with force feedback is realized along x-axis by the human operator while y-axis orientation is undertaken automatically using visual feedback. In this way the desired line Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (of pushing for the micro-object is controlled to pass through the varying center of friction. Experimental results are shown to prove nano-Newton range force sensing, scaled bilateral teleoperation with force feedback and pushing operation.

Fluid Dynamics Aided Design of an Innovative Micro-Gripper

“…Several different micro-grippers based on contact or contact-less principles have been presented in literature [2][3][4]. They take advantage of different technologies and strategies like: ultrasonic waves, acoustic, electrostatics, vacuum, capillarity, etc.…”

Invited Article: A review of haptic optical tweezers for an interactive microworld exploration

“…However, in the microworld, several works have considered the coupling of existing micromanipulators to commercial or prototype haptic devices with little successes. [4][5][6] Indeed, the feedback is dependant on the degrees of freedom of the platform, the range of scaling and the type of interaction to render. Compared to other techniques, optical tweezers 7 seem to be more promissing for the integration of the robotic technique of force feedback teleoperation (see Figure 1).…”

A Haptic Tele-operated System for Microassembly

“…Some researchers have utilized haptic interfaces in 1-DOF to perform basic operations like pushing [4] or more complicated functions for grasping micro-objects and carrying out assembly tasks [5], [6], [7]. Others have focused on biological applications by handling cells and tissue [8], [9].…”