Micropeg manipulation with a compliant microgripper

This paper presents analytical, simulation and experimental results from a study of compliant insertion tasks in microassembly. Gripper compliance is desirable to compensate for positional errors and to prevent the breakage of a gripper during assembly tasks. An analytical model is derived to study the motion and force profiles during compliant insertion. Thermal bimorph microgrippers with a compliant tip are designed and fabricated using a silicon DRIE process, and are mounted on a precision motion stage. A series of micropeg manipulation tasks such as pick up, rotation, and insertion are successfully performed. Finally, a comb structure is integrated in the gripper to calculate insertion force by measuring the deflection of a gripper, which is essential for automated microassembly.