6 DOF dexterous microgripper for inspection of microparts

This paper presents a novel 6 DOF (degree-of-freedom) piezoelectric micro gripping/handling system for automatic dexterous manipulation and inspection of microoptoelectronic components. The purpose of the system is to pick-and-place and align microparts having size of 300 to 400 mum square. The alignment task includes both translational alignment for field-of-view and focusing, and rotational alignment for uniform focusing. All six actuation axes are controlled based on strain gauge sensor feedback. A network-based control system is used for automatic control of the gripper. The control system includes three hierarchical layers: actuator control layer, motion planning layer, and mission layer. Visual servoing is applied in automatic handling. The performance of the system is demonstrated in a fully automated inspection task