Abstract
Manipulating micro-objects is needed in various applications such as micro-assembly, minimally invasive surgery and micro-organism manipulation, which refers to micro-manipulation in this paper. During such operations, controlling the gripping force is mandatory, in order to prevent damage or the breaking of the micro-parts being grasped and handled, given that they are often very fragile. The force sensing is frequently carried out by sensors embedded in the micro-gripper, but this produces strong design and manufacturing constraints consequently. In this paper, vision-based manipulation of micro-parts is investigated. Moreover, instead of working with real setups, this paper investigates micro-manipulations carried out in simulation. Working on simulators instead of real setups allows to easily and quickly implement different vision-based force measurement methods, different force control strategies and even different micro-gripper systems. Using the simulators, we are also able to compare the performance and limitations achieved in each manipulation, and to study the impact of certain parameters on manipulation performance. MATLAB-based simulators were designed in this paper. A vision-based force measurement method was then implemented and integrated into a closed-loop force control. In the end, successful grasp-hold-release manipulations of micro-parts (400–600 µm size) were achieved with a force-sensing resolution of less than 6 µN. Moreover, the manipulation was observed to be successful when softness variation is introduced on the micro-object (± 20% around the average value), and when pictures are degraded because of noise and blur effects.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alvo S (2012) Étude, modélisation et mesure des forces d’adhésion à l’échelle microscopique. Micro et nanotechnologies/microélectronique. Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI
Anis YH, Mills JK, Cleghorn WL (2006) Vision-based measurement of microassembly forces. J Micromech Microeng 16:1639–1652
Aviles AI, Marban A, Sobrevilla P, Fernandez J, Casals A (2014) A recurrent neural network approach for 3D vision-based force estimation. In: 2014 4th international conference on image processing theory, tools and applications (IPTA), Paris, pp 1–6
Cappelleri DJ, Piazza G, Kumar V (2009) Two-dimensional, vision-based μN force sensor for microrobotics. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, pp 1016–1021, Kobe, 2009
Chen BK, Zhang Y, Sun Y (2009a) Overcoming adhesion forces: active release of micro objects in micromanipulation. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, Kobe, May 12–17, pp 2611–2616
Chen BK, Zhang Y, Sun Y (2009b) Active release of microobjects using a MEMS microgripper to overcome adhesion forces. J Microelectromech Syst 18(3):652–659
Greminger MA, Nelson BJ (2004) Vision-based force measurement. IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell 26(3):290–298
Hao G, Li H, Nayak A, Caro S (2018) Design of a compliant gripper with multimode jaws. ASME J Mech Robot 10(3):031005
Kima D, Sunb Y, Yuna S, Leec SH, Kima B (2005) Investigating chorion softening of zebrafish embryos with a microrobotic force sensing system. J Biomech 38:1359–1363
Menciassi A, Eisinberg A, Izzo I, Dario P (2004) From “macro” to “micro” manipulation: models and experiments. IEEE/ASME Trans Mechatron 9(2):311–320
Narayana-Reddy A, Ananthasuresh GK (2008) On computing the forces from the noisy displacement data of an elastic body. Int J Numer Methods Eng 76:1645–1677
Nelson BJ, Morrow JD, Khosla PK (1995) Improved force control through visual servoing. In: Proceedings of 1995 American control conference, Seattle, vol 1, pp 380–386
Reddy AN, Maheshwari N, Sahu DK, Ananthasuresh GK (2010) Miniature compliant grippers with vision-based force sensing. IEEE Trans Robot 26(5):867–877
Savia M, Koivo HN (2009) Contact micromanipulation—survey of strategies. IEEE/ASME Trans Mechatron 14(4):504–514
Wang X, Ananthasuresh GK, Ostrowski JP (2001) Vision-based sensing of forces in elastic objects. Sens Actuators A 94(3):142–156
Wason JD, Wen JT, Gorman JJ, Dagalakis NG (2012) Automated multiprobe microassembly using vision feedback. IEEE Trans Robot 28(5):1090–1103
Xu Q (2013) New robust position and force regulation for a compliant microgripper. In: 2013 IEEE international conference on automation science and engineering (CASE), Madison, pp 801–806
Xu Q (2014) Design and smooth position/force switching control of a miniature gripper for automated microhandling. IEEE Trans Ind Inf 10(2):1023–1032
Acknowledgements
Loïc Riegel was funded by EU Erasmus + programme and French Grand Est Region.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Riegel, L., Hao, G. & Renaud, P. Vision-based micro-manipulations in simulation. Microsyst Technol 27, 3183–3191 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-020-05072-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-020-05072-5