Cell Analysis System Using Two-fingered Micro Hand -Fine adjustment mechanism for end-effector-

A two-fingered micro hand has been developed for years and it allows dexterous manipulation of a single cell: grabbing, positioning, rotation and releasing. The end-effector of this micro hand consists of two glass needles. Before grabbing an object, the glass needles need to be approached to each other manually (initial setup). However, this operation requires high skill manual control, so that it is very difficult and a time-consuming. This paper discusses improvement of the original micro hand mechanism to achieve its fine adjustment of two glass needles. For the easy initial setup, movement of the glass tips should be divided into three directions (horizontal, translational, vertical) and have the resolution of several micro meter order. Three piezoelectric devices are used to realize the fine movement for three directions. Moreover the workspace of the end-effector can be widened by applying the principle of leverage to glass and piezoelectric device. Based on these ideas, we prototyped a new shape of end-effector which enables fine movement along three axes. Using this end-effector design, the initial setup of micro hand is easier than the previous model. As a result, the micro hand can achieve more efficient manipulation.