We present an ultra-thin meso scale piezoelectric actuator consisting of a piezoceramic beam and a carbon fiber displacement-amplification frame. We show that the actuator can be designed to achieve a wide range of force/displacement characteristics on the mN/μm scales. The best performing design achieved a free displacement of 106 μm and a blocked force of 73 mN, yielding a total energy densit...

For maintenance microrobots for small diameter pipes in power plants and so on, a novel microgripper using divided-electrode type flexible electro-rheological valves (DE-FERVs) was proposed and developed. Each bendable finger consisted of the DE-FERV and a hydraulic rubber actuator and was several millimeters long. The DE-FERV had an axially divided parallel plate electrode pairs in a flexible ...

During micro-assembly processes, surface forces influence the behavior of micro-objects more than volumic forces. Generally contacts happen between a microgripper and a micro-objet or a substrate and a micro-object. The pull-off force which represents the force required to break a contact is one of the predominant problem in micro-assembly. Now, current force measurements are mostly focused on ...