Modeling and implementation of nanoscale robotic grasping

To understand robotic grasping at the nanoscale, contact mechanics between nano grippers and nano samples was studied. Contact mechanics models were introduced to simulate elastic contacts between various profiles of flat surface, sphere and cylinder for different types of nano samples and nano grippers. Analyses and evaluation instances indicate that friction forces, commonly used in macro grasping to overcome the gravity, at nanoscale is often not enough to overcome relatively strong adhesion forces to pick up the nano sample deposited on a substrate due to tiny contact area of the grasping. Two-finger grippers are proposed for the stable nanoscale grasping and a nonparallel gripper with a ´V´ configuration was demonstrated with better grasping capabilities than a parallel one. To achieve the robotic nanoscale grasping, a nano gripper constructed from two individually actuated and sensed tips is presented. Pick-and-place manipulation of silicon nanowires validate the theoretical analyses and capabilities of the proposed nano gripper.