Cooperative work of arrayed microactuators

This paper proposes and demonstrates a way to obtain macroscopic work out of arrayed microactuators fabricated by IC-compatible micromachining processes. We have coordinated the simple and small motion of microactuators in order to perform a task. The concept and a control scheme are discussed first with some examples. In order to show the feasibility, the fabrication and operation of arrayed microactuators for microconveyors are described. One uses thermally driven cantilevers and the other uses controlled air flow from micronozzles to carry flat objects