Parallel microassembly with a robotic manipulation system

Abstract

This paper proposes a methodology to assemble multiple micro-components simultaneously with a robotic manipulator using a parallel assembly method. Through manipulating and assembling the micro-components, intricate, out-of-plane, three-dimensional micro-devices can now be fabricated. Use of a parallel microassembly process rather that a serial approach can significantly increase the productivity and reduce the cost of assembling micro-devices. The parallel microassembly operation proposed in this work was developed and implemented on a 6-DOF robot manipulator to attain considerable manufacturing flexibility. In this study, three passive microgrippers were bonded in parallel to the end-effector of the manipulator. Three microparts were then grasped by the grippers from the worktable of the manipulator, rotated 90°, and assembled onto the base substrate simultaneously. During the parallel microassembly operation, the visual image may not be able to monitor all three gripper-part pairs simultaneously due to the limited field of view of the microscope. Through the use of an alignment-calibration algorithm with only one gripper-part set, the remaining two sets were successfully manipulated and inserted onto the desired assembly location.