Bioinspired Multilegged Piezoelectric Robot: The Design Philosophy Aiming at High‐Performance Micromanipulation

摘要

Micromanipulation robots are powerful tools to explore and reform the microscope world, but it is difficult to integrate high precision, long stroke, strong carrying capability, and multi‐degree of freedom (DOF) motions in a single robot. To address this challenge, herein a bioinspired hexapod piezoelectric robot (PER‐hexapod) aiming at high‐performance micromanipulation is presented. Specifically, two piezoelectric elements are integrated in a functional module to provide 3‐DOF precise motions, the collaboration of six functional modules generates the multi‐DOF motions, and the multimode fusion of three gaits facilitates the cross‐scale motion. The robot outputs 6‐DOF motions with resolutions higher than 4 nm or 0.2 μrad, and unlimited traveling ranges of in‐plane motions are accomplished. PER‐hexapod, whose weight is 0.45 kg, can stably drive a carrying load of 10 kg. In addition, PER‐hexapod realizes the accurate positioning with the root‐mean‐square error less than 5 nm. Thus, it has potential applications in the precise positioning in a large range, such as the batch injection of multiple cells and micromachining on large surfaces. Not only PER‐hexapod, but many other robots can be also designed with the same philosophy to construct micromanipulation systems for various requirements.