Problem description:

The aim of this thesis is the implementation and evaluation of an active release method for an existing micro-manipulation. The system is equipped with a human-controlled microgripper for performing pick-and-place tasks with microspheres (10-100 µm in diameter). Contrarily to the familiar macroworld, in the microworld, gravity is not the dominant force and short-range forces, Van-der-Waals and electrostatic forces, become significant. As some of the are highly attractive, an object grasped by a microgripper might tend to stick to the gripper even after release. To allow precise and intuitive manipulation at that scale, this adhesive forces have be reduced or overridden actively.

The experimental setup is located at Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg.

 

 

Tasks:

• Literature research
• Theoretical modeling of release method
• Implementation on micro-manipulation system
• Experimental evaluation and documentation

 

 

Requirements:

Basic knowledge in C/C++ and MATLAB is preferable but not necessary.

 

Bibliography:

R. Fearing, “Survey of sticking effects for micro parts handling,” in Intelligent Robots and Systems 95. ’Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots’, Proceedings. 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on, vol. 2, Aug 1995, pp. 212–217 vol.2.

 

Supervisor:

Andreas Schmid