Development of a positioning & compensation device for a versatile micro robot

In this paper, we describe the design and development of a positioning and compensation device for a versatile micro robot. To provide microscopic operations, the versatile micro robot has developed. The robot can move in any direction in the manner of an inchworm. However many positioning errors exist because of an assembling error in the four piezoelectric actuators and two electromagnets. We need an automatic positioning device for more accurate work. Motion compensation is also highly required for more effective work. This robot is very small, so it can easily be set to work with the various devices. The positing device should also be small so that we can carry the device easily and set it up in a narrow working area. In this report, we propose a USB camera based positioning device with special compensation function. In experiments, we succeeded in controlling the robot on an octagonal path with controlling the posture angle freely. When we compensate for the motion, the positioning time becomes 60 % compared to that of no compensation. The design procedure, basic performance and biomedical application are also discussed as an advance in the new field of micro-robotics used in precision regions.