Hybrid force/position control applied to automated guiding tasks at the microscale

Force feedback control constitutes a promising solution for achieving fully automated micro-assembly. In this paper, we report the study of force feedback control used during guiding task. An experimental setup with two sensorized fingers is proposed. It enables to grasp a micropart of 2 mm × 50 μm × 50 μm in size and to estimate the lateral contact force. A simulator is developed to take into account the gripping forces evolution during a lateral perturbation. External hybrid force/position control is chosen for performing automated guiding tasks. Experimental results demonstrate the ability of the implemented controller and suitable design of microsystems.