Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : June 11, 2025 - June 14, 2025
The targets of micro manipulation are very small and the size, shape, stiffness vary widely. For detailed research, a single target manipulation is critical so manipulator which can be used in multiple targets are needed. In previous study, our group has fabricated a variable-stiffness micro-gripper with photochromic material and hydrogel which is around 30 μm in size and successfully adjusting the stiffness in a range from 6.8 kPa to 10.6 MPa. However, the conventional design had theoretical limitations regarding its size adjustment functionality. This paper reports the miniaturization of the gripper and show the feasibility of resizeability. We fabricated a light-controlled variable-stiffness micro-gripper with the size adjustability. And size adjustment of the micro-gripper was successfully demonstrated.
