A fine manipulation tweezer with embedded ultrasonic motor for assembly and gripping miniature parts

Due to the characteristics of lightness, smallness, thinness and softness, it is difficult to realize automatic production of miniature parts by robot systems in electronic industry. In this paper, a fine-manipulation tweezer with embedded ultrasonic motor for assembly and gripping miniature parts is proposed. First, an optimized design method to improve the motor thrust is presented. By analyzing the driving mechanism and forward/reverse working principle, motor thrust is improved, the position of the driving foot and the shape of the slot in the motor are optimized. The soft characteristic of the motor is selected to improve the output performance in the circumstance of two motors are driving in parallel. Experiments are implemented to verify the feasibility of the proposed tweezer, small workpieces can be gripped by the tweezer through a pushing rod actuated by the motors. The advantages with the use of this tweezer are that as it is small and light therefore visual surveillance cannot be blocked, force control and impedance control are realized easily.