A conveyance system using air flow based on the concept of distributed micro motion systems

A microactuator array for a planar conveyance system on a plane has been designed and fabricated by micro-machining. Though a typical microactuator accomplishes only a simple motion, the coordination of simple motions makes it possible for the array to perform a more complicated task. Therefore, we propose the conveyance system composed of distributed microactuators. An object is levitated and carried by controlled air flow from many microactuators in the system. We designed a fluidic microactuator which has two on-off nozzles and fabricated an array of these microactuators on an SOI (Silicon On Insulator) substrate. The dimension of each actuator is about 100 /spl mu/m/spl times/200 /spl mu/m. Each microactuator can control the direction of air flow by electrostatically closing one of nozzles and can carry a flat object on the flow to the desired direction. The experiment to convey objects to the desired position by the one-dimensional conveyance system was performed successfully.<
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