2004 Volume 70 Issue 1 Pages 86-90
In this paper, we describe the compensation sequence and the result of motion compensation of the newly developed versatile micro robot which can be applied to microscopic operation. In order to provide microscopic manipulation, the unique locomotion mechanism which is composed of four piezoelectric elements and two electromagnets is proposed. Here two legs arranged on cross each other are connected by four piezoelectric 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 an inchworm. Moreover the combination of particular wave forms for piezoelectric elements can provide “arc trajectory with facing center”, that is important for the micro manipulator to keep its tip end within the microscopic view area. However, the versatile micro robot can not move precisely without the motion compensation because of the difference of characteristics of four piezoelectric elements and the assembling error of four piezoelectric elements and two electromagnets. We analyze the mechanical kinematics for locomotion and propose the competitive compensation method supported by the CCD camera based image tracking system. In the compensation experiments, we succeed in reducing the motion error and confirm the effectiveness of our compensation method. 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.
