Woo Ho Lee

μ 3 : Multiscale, Deterministic Micro-Nano Assembly System for Construction of On-Wafer Microrobots

One of the major issues enduring with micro-scale mechanics has been to design high fidelity miniature machines capable of performing complex operations. Though achieved in some proportion through conventional in-plane and out-of-plane designs, the efficacy of such micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) structures is highly limited due to complicate fabrication and inadequate robustness. On the other hand, the use of precise robots to assemble MEMS parts of comparatively simpler design to build 3D micromechanical structures has recently emerged as a viable approach. Such modular assemblies of microscale parts typically utilize minimum energy connectors that are multifunctional, e.g., mechanical, electrical etc. The μ3 is a 3D microassembly station consisting of 19 DOF arranged into 3 micromanipulators, with additional microgrippers and stereo microscope vision. The platform is capable of motion resolutions of 3nm and is small enough to be used inside of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) for nano-manipulation. In this paper we discuss how systematic identification and calibration of the station, combined with appropriate part connector designs can lead to multi-degree of freedom active MEMS robots assembled on a wafer

Micropeg manipulation with a compliant microgripper

This paper presents analytical, simulation and experimental results from a study of compliant insertion tasks in microassembly. Gripper compliance is desirable to compensate for positional errors and to prevent the breakage of a gripper during assembly tasks. An analytical model is derived to study the motion and force profiles during compliant insertion. Thermal bimorph microgrippers with a compliant tip are designed and fabricated using a silicon DRIE process, and are mounted on a precision motion stage. A series of micropeg manipulation tasks such as pick up, rotation, and insertion are successfully performed. Finally, a comb structure is integrated in the gripper to calculate insertion force by measuring the deflection of a gripper, which is essential for automated microassembly.

Dynamic rolling locomotion and control of modular robots

Highly redundant modular robots may undergo large shape changes which significantly affect the geometry and dynamics of the robot. In these motions, the shape change may induce a tipping or rolling behavior of the robot. The paper describes the dynamic modeling, locomotion planning, control and simulation of such rolling motions for the Tetrobot modular robots. The motion is described by the path profiles of controlled nodes, the tipping criteria and dynamic tipping motion and an impact-reaction model of contact with the ground. These phases of motion are described using Newton-Euler dynamic equations and the principle of conservation of angular momentum. In the paper, a two-phase planning and switching control sequence is introduced to achieve stable and reliable motion of a Tetrobot modular robot. Simulation results illustrate the tipping behavior of a tetrahedron, the dynamic contact and rolling of an icosahedral Tetrobot and dynamic control of the rolling Tetrobot. The resulting models are useful to analyze and control both intentional rolling as a new mode of mobility as well as the avoidance of unintentional tipping and rolling during task execution.

Dynamic Analysis and Distributed Control of the Tetrobot Modular Reconfigurable Robotic System

Reconfigurable robotic systems can be adapted to different tasks or environments by reorganizing their mechanical configurations. Such systems have many redundant degrees of freedom in order to meet the combined demands of strength, rigidity, workspace kinematics, reconfigurability, and fault tolerance. In order to implement these new generations of robotic system, new approaches must be considered for design, analysis, and control. This paper presents an efficient distributed computational scheme which computes the kinematics, dynamics, redundancy resolution, and control inputs for real-time application to the control of the Tetrobot modular reconfigurable robots. The entire system is decomposed into subsystems based on a modular approach and Newtons equations of motion are derived and implemented using a recursive propagation algorithm. Two different dynamic resolution of redundancy schemes, the centralized Jacobian method and the distributed virtual force method, are proposed to optimize the actuating forces. Finally, distributed dynamic control algorithms provide an efficient modular implementation of the control architecture for a large family of configurations.

Assembled Fourier transform micro-spectrometer

Microassembly process plays a key role in building 3-dimensional heterogeneous microsystems. This paper presents a miniaturized Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) implemented by combining silicon micromachining and microassembly techniques. The FTS is based on a Michelson interferometer where a scanning mirror mechanism creates an interferogram, and the recorded interferogram is converted to a spectrum by Fourier transform. The miniaturized Michelson interferometer is integrated on a microoptical bench, which is fabricated using Deep RIE (Reactive Ion Etching) process on a SOI (Silicon On Insulator) wafer. Key components of the FTS optical bench are a linear translation stage, mechanical assembly sockets, a beam splitter, and assembled mirrors. An electrothermal actuator with stroke amplification mechanisms provides the amplified scanning motion of a scanning mirror. The sockets are female mechanical flexure structures that allow a precise snap-fit assembly with micromachined silicon mirrors. The dimension of the FTS optical bench is 1cm2, and its embedded thermal actuator has a couple of V-beam structures whose beam length is 1mm. The mirrors are Deep RIE micromachined structures with reflection area 500x450μm2 and 750μm long flexure structures for pick & place assembly. The flexure structure allows large deflection so that a microgripper can pick up the mirror by inserting the gripper tip into the structure, and snap-fit assembles it into the mechanical socket of the bench. The linear translation stage generates up to 30μm scanning stroke at 22V input, which corresponds to a spectral resolution of 10nm at 775nm wavelength. While this microassembly method is designed to self-align the mirror in the socket, the mirror slightly tilts after assembly due to the slope of side wall of DRIE processed structures. The measured tilting angles of assembled mirrors range from -2.5° to 0.8° from several assembly trials. The tilting angle combined with beam divergence can cause the loss of power and resolution, spectrum shift and phase error. A He-Ne laser was used as a light source to create interferogram with the assembled microspectrometer. Formation of fringe patterns was successfully conducted with a prototype. Mirrors with a large tilting misalignment resulted in stripe pattern fringes, whereas an improved alignment generated circular pattern fringes. A detector was used to measure light power with respect to input voltage, and the displacement of a scanning mirror was measured and curve-fitted. The relationship between light power changes versus the displacement of a scanning mirror represents interferogram. Spectrum profiles showed a peak around 632nm with FWHM (Full Width Half Magnitude) 25nm approximately. While further research is on going to improve spectrum quality and microassembly technique for the integration of various components with heterogeneous materials and shapes, this approach is expected to facilitate the design and manufacturing of MOEMS from the constraints of micromachining processes.

Design, Optimization, and Experiments of Compliant Microgripper

Recent progress of MEMS technology enables the mass production of microdevices with low cost. However, methods for designing microgrippers and microdevice assembly processes have not been studied extensively. This paper presents the design and optimization of compliant microgripper, and snap-fit based microassembly experiments. A key issue of microassembly is to design a microgripper that is capable of handling and manipulating microparts with positional uncertainty and the lack of sensory information. Topology optimization is used to design compliant microgrippers that can produce a large opening at the tip or a gripper, and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is performed to evaluate the characteristics of grippers. Compliant microgripper driven by the embedded thermal actuator and snap-connectors were fabricated using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process with Silicon On Insulator (SOI) wafer. With a fabricated microgripper and several snap-fits, the assembly of a three dimensional microstructure was successfully demonstrated.Copyright

An active micro joining mechanism for 3D assembly

An active joining mechanism for the construction of microstructures, comprising detethered microparts and locking actuators fabricated on a wafer, has been implemented. An active locking mechanism is a system on chip (SOC) type of actuator which is designed to control the sockets opening to allow insertion of a micropart with zero force. This allows the delicate micropart to be secured without the need of substantial forces that could cause damage to the micropart or the socket. Moreover, it enhances the assembly throughput, tolerance and yield due to the frictionless self-alignment of the micropart. The design concept, assembly and extensive characterization have been illustrated for 100 µm thick microstructures made of SOI wafers and patterned by deep reactive ion etching. Single-sided and double-sided electrothermal bent beam actuators are utilized for the socket to actively open during assembly and close to lock the micropart against the locking mechanism. Finally, the mechanical and electrical characteristics of the joints can be further enhanced by reflow of the deposited layers of the 80Au–20Sn solder alloy at the contact areas.

Design Tradeoffs for Electrothermal Microgrippers

Microgrippers based on electrothermal actuation were designed and fabricated using the deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process with 100mum thick silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer. The design requirements are restricted to basic manipulation tasks such as pick and place, and nonprehensile manipulation. This paper explores several electrothermal end-effectors which have been fabricated for serial and parallel microassembly. The end-effectors include three main building blocks: 1) Integrated and symmetrical actuators of V and U shapes. The symmetrical expansions on Chevron and hot arms allow combination of forward translations that amplify angular motion at the tips of a gripper. 2) A joule heating element based on a resistive V-shape electrothermal actuator. In 3D microassembly, the joining of a micropart is essentially performed by providing an integrated microheater device. 3) A force or position feedback sensing block based on self-straining or electrostatic principle. The integrated sensor can be calibrated for both position and force measurements. Serial heterogeneous assembly of meso and micro-scale objects is demonstrated using a 3D microassembly station. Black-box dynamical models for microgrippers are derived using experimentally obtained data, and performance variations due to the way the microgrippers are mounted onto the robot are discussed.

High Yield Automated MEMS Assembly

Heterogeneous assembly of 21/2D or 3D MEMS components is an alternate micromanufacturing route to monolithic integration or other stochastic, self-assembly approaches. This approach is deterministic (directed) and involves using microgrippers mounted on precision robots to pick-and-place microparts. In this context, the use of engineered compliance has been recently proposed as a very practical way to account for positional tolerances of the robot end-effectors and the manufacturing tolerances in the microparts. In this paper, we examine the most important tradeoffs in compliant MEMS assembly and conclude that the use of automation at these scales is qualitatively different than automation at larger scales. Whereas at the meso and macro scales, automation is often undertaken after, and often benchmarked against manual assembly, deterministic automation at the MEMS scale is a more holistic approach. This means that the designs of the assembly cell, part and end-effectors should be considered simultaneously, and that by doing so, we can automate assembly operations without the use of closed-loop feedback. To support our findings, we use several examples of micropart design and experimental results with mu3, a microrobotic workcell configured for high yield MEMS assembly.

Dynamics and distributed control of Tetrobot modular robots

This paper proposes a distributed control scheme for a highly redundant parallel Tetrobot mechanism. The architecture of the proposed distributed control is composed of processors dedicated to each module and a network used to communicate the information between the modules. Each processor computes the kinematics, dynamics and control input for the dedicated module using the subsystem dynamic model and the information communicated only from adjacent modules. The simulation results of set-point and tracking control are provided to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed scheme and compared to centralized control. The results show that the controlled node reaches the desired position without a steady state error even though the convergence rate is slower than for the centralized scheme. To improve the problem caused by a local optimization technique, an iteration scheme of local optimization was also applied to obtain a global solution to generate the paths of uncontrolled nodes.