A development of experimental system for macro-micro teleoperation

Micro components of micro machines, such as mechanisms, gears, sensors and actuators which are almost invisible, have been made by recent advance of mechanical and electronic engineering. The production of micro machines, however, requires new technologies for assembling micro parts into complete micro machines. Macro-micro teleoperation is one of the key technologies for constructing micro machines and will help human operators assemble micro parts with the skills they already have. First, we describe an experimental system for macro-micro teleoperation which we have developed. This system consists of a pair of prototype 2 DOF micro slave arms actuated by voice-coil motors to generate micro forces, and a pair of 2 DOF master arms actuated by the linear DD motors. Second, the basic characteristics of the system are introduced and the experimental results are presented.