Design and Analysis of a Reconfigurable Microgripper Integrated with Micro-Vision System

This paper proposes the design and analysis of a reconfigurable piezoelectric-driven compliant microgripper, which is integrated into a micro-vision system to facilitate automatic and complex microoperation. First, the structure design of the microgripper is developed. A multi-mode dual-stage lever displacement amplification mechanism is devised to realize three working modes. According to the beam deformation theory and pseudo-rigid-body modeling method, the gripper's theoretical model is derived. To further study the static and dynamic performances of the microgripper, simulation study based on the finite element model is performed. The results indicate that the designed microgripper possesses a large displacement amplification ratio of 60.94 and a long gripping stroke of
$1218.89\ \mu\mathrm{m}$
in mode I, while it achieves a high natural frequency of 871.27 Hz in mode II. Moreover, it realizes a balanced performance with a normally closed gripping type in mode III. Finally, a microoperation system based on a micro-vision device is designed to make full use of the gripper's advantage of comprehensive performance.