Penetration force measurement and control in robotic cell microinjection

In a robotic cell injection system, the penetration force applied on the cell reflects the changes of the physical behavior of the cell. The force, if not controlled properly, may damage to the cells or even lead to death of the cells. The current cellular force measurement is limited by the inherent cantilever structure of the sensor, which may not be applicable to a practical cell injection system. In this paper, a simply supported beam structure based PVDF force sensor is first presented. The proportion relation is established between the penetration force and the sensor output after compensation. Using the designed force sensor, the force applied on the cell can be measured, and a force control based cell injection system is constructed. The experimental results performed on zebrafish embryos demonstrate the effectiveness of the micro force sensor and the force based control framework.