Self-aligning electrostatic gripper for assembly of millimeter-sized parts

Author

White, Edward L. ; Enikov, Eniko T.

Author_Institution

Arizona Univ., Tucson

fYear

2007

fDate

4-7 Sept. 2007

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

In this study, the performance of several electrostatic grippers is evaluated. These grippers are designed to align millimeter scale parts to matching electrode geometry on the gripper surface. Friction between the gripper and part is overcome through ultrasonic excitation of the gripper by a piezoceramic element. The effect of different frequencies and amplitudes of excitation on alignment were observed. Additionally, the use of ultrasonic excitation to aid in part release after clamping was investigated. Under ideal conditions, part motion was most frequently observed in certain excitation frequency windows, which correspond to resonant modes of the part-gripper system.

Keywords

electrostatics; grippers; industrial manipulators; microassembling; micromanipulators; micromechanical devices; piezoelectric devices; robotic assembly; electrode geometry matching; excitation frequency windows; millimeter-sized part assembly; piezoceramic element; self-aligning electrostatic gripper; ultrasonic excitation; Assembly; Clamps; Electrodes; Electrostatics; Frequency; Friction; Geometry; Grippers; Piezoelectric materials; Resonance; Electrostatics; Microassembly; Self-Alignment;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Advanced intelligent mechatronics, 2007 IEEE/ASME international conference on

Conference_Location

Zurich

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1263-1

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-1264-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AIM.2007.4412447

Filename

4412447