An intuitive teachable micro material handling robot with Van der Waals gripper design and development

There is an increasing need for micro material handling systems that are not only accurate but also intuitive. This is pertinent when considered in light of a micro piezoceramic pick and place case study. The case study forms part of a collaboration with the Chemnitz University of Technology. Conventional robot-teach methods require careful and time consuming incremental movements when picking and placing micro components. This is due to the fact that a very specific contact force needs to be established. If this specific force is exceeded, damage will result. This is especially relevant in light of the use of a Van der Waals gripper for piezo-ceramic micro part positioning. A system has thus been developed that incorporates a force teach technique in a coarse to fine micro material handling system. A number of issues arise in the interaction between the coarse positioning system and the fine positioning. These are addressed by the design of the calibration system. A series of actions learned by the system can be applied over a coarse 500 mm range with a fine 3 μm repeatability. The system's ability to implement scalable, responsive, and intuitive control is paramount to its applicability to the considered case study.