${\rm M}^{3}$ -Deterministic, Multiscale, Multirobot Platform for Microsystems Packaging: Design and Quasi-Static Precision Evaluation

The dawn of next generation robots and systems era which is quietly emerging, requires miniaturized and integrated sensors, actuators, and entire microrobots. One of the defining characteristics of these microsystems is their multiscale nature, e.g., the span of their size, features, and tolerances across multiple dimensional scales, from the meso to the micro and nanoscales. Another defining characteristic is the need to reliably integrate heterogeneous materials via assembly and packaging, in a cost-effective manner, even in low quantities. Thus, it is argued in this paper that cost-effective manufacturing of complex microsystems requires special precision robotic assembly cells with modular and reconfigurable characteristics. This paper presents recent research aimed at developing theoretical underpinnings for how to construct such a manufacturing platform. M³ is a multirobot system spanning across the macro-meso-microscales and specifically configured to package. The M³ robots are systematically characterized in terms of quasi-static precision measures and assembly plans are generated using kinematic identification, inverse kinematics and visual servoing. The advantage of our approach the fact that high assembly yields for our system are a consequence of a set of so-called precision resolution-repeatability-accuracy (RRA) rules introduced in this paper. Experimental results for packaging of a microelectromechanical systems switch are provided to support our findings.