Automatic dextrous microhandling based on a 6 DOF microgripper

The demand for automatic quality inspection of individual micro components increases strongly in micro optoelectronics industry. In many cases, quality inspection of those micro components needs dexterous microhandling. However, automatic dexterous handling of micro components is a very challenging issue which is barely explored. This paper presents a high-DOF (degrees of freedom) automatic dexterous handling and inspection system for micro optoelectronic components using a novel 6-DOF piezoelectric microgripper. The control system includes three hierarchical layers: actuator control layer, motion planning layer, and mission control layer. Machine vision is applied in automatic manipulation. The performance of the system is demonstrated in a vision based automatic inspection task for 100 300 300 × × μm sized optoelectronics components and reached a cycle time of s 3 . 0 1 . 7 ± .