Development of Versatile Micro Robot for Microscopic Operation. (1st Report). Design of Structure and Result of Basic Performance.

Abstract

In this paper, we describe design and control of the newly developed versatile micro robot which can be applied to microscopes. In order to provide microscopic manipulation, the unique locomotion mechanism which is composed of four piezo elements and two electromagnets is proposed. Here two legs arranged on cross each other are connected by four piezo elements so that it can move in any directions, i.e. in X and Y directions as well as rotate at the specified point precisely with the manner of inch worm. Moreover the combination of particular wave forms for piezo elements can provide "arc trajectory with facing center", that is important for the micro manipulator to keep its tip end within the microscopic area. In the primary experiments, several performances such as motion accuracy, reliability and precise dexterity are checked by the CCD camera based microscope image tracker. The design procedure, basic performance and biomedical application of this tiny robot also are discussed to open the new field for micro-robotics in precision region.