Pneumatic micro hand and miniaturized parallel link robot for micro manipulation robot system

Abstract

This paper reports the pneumatic PDMS micro hand as an end-effector of robot and miniaturized parallel link robot (guide robot) for manipulating a tiny and delicate object. Micro finger structure for the micro hand consists of bonded two films having different stiffness. Balloon structures are designed between the two films. Swelling of the balloon structure by applied pressure generates bending motion of the micro finger. This combination of the micro hand is based on the human being's finger and/or hand. The guide robot has several design specifications such as multi degrees of freedom joint as a human, small size, highly accurate directional control and water/ sterilization proof. Micro manipulation robot system is developed by assembling the micro finger with two or three degree of freedom, the guide robot and VR (virtual reality) interface device. The hybrid motion and the manipulation of a single egg (phi1 mm) of fish and a hair (phi100 mum) in macro world is successfully realized