The use of small, maneuverable, untethered and reconfigurable robots could provide numerous advantages in various micromanipulation tasks. Examples include microassembly, pick-and-place of fragile micro-objects for lab-on-a-chip applications, assisted hatching for in-vitro fertilization and minimally invasive surgery. This study assesses the potential of soft untethered magnetic grippers as alternatives or complements to conventional tethered or rigid micromanipulators. We demonstrate closed-loop control of untethered grippers and automated pick-and-place of biological material on porcine tissue in an unstructured environment. We also demonstrate the ability of the soft grippers to recognize and sort non-biological micro-scale objects. The fully autonomous nature of the experiments is made possible by the integration of planning and decision-making algorithms, as well as by closed-loop temperature and electromagnetic motion control. The grippers are capable of completing pick-and-place tasks of biological material at an average velocity of 1.8 +/- 0.71 mm/s and a drop-off error of 0.62 +/- 0.22 mm. Color-sensitive sorting of three microscale objects is completed at a velocity of 1.21 +/- 0.68 mm/s and a drop-off error of 0.85 +/- 0.41 mm. Our findings suggest that improved autonomous untethered grippers could augment the capabilities of current soft-robotic instruments especially in advanced tasks involving manipulation.
Autonomous planning and control of soft untethered grippers in unstructured environments
2017-06-01
Ongaro , F , Scheggi , S , Yoon , C , van den Brink , F , Oh , S H , Gracias , D H & Misra , S 2017 , ' Autonomous planning and control of soft untethered grippers in unstructured environments ' , Journal of micro-Bio robotics , vol. 12 , no. 1-4 , pp. 45-52 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s12213-016-0091-1 ; ISSN:2194-6418
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
DDC: | 629 |
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