• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.789-797
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• 2004

The nanoscale sensing and manipulation have become a challenging issue in micro/nano-robotic applications. In particular, a feedback sensor-based manipulation is necessary for realizing an efficient and reliable handling of particles under uncertain environment in a micro/nano scale. This paper presents a piezoresistive MEMS cantilever for nanoscale force measurement in micro robotics. A piezoresistive MEMS cantilever enables sensing of gripping and contact forces in nanonewton resolution by measuring changes in the stress-induced electrical resistances. The calibration of a piezoresistive MEMS cantilever is experimentally carried out. In addition, as part of the work on nanomanipulation with a piezoresistive MEMS cantilever, the analysis on the interaction forces between a tip and a material, and the associated manipulation strategies are investigated. Experiments and simulations show that a piezoresistive MEMS cantilever integrated into a micro robotic system can be effectively used in nanoscale force measurements and a sensor-based manipulation.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.2445-2450
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• 2003

Recently, biological technology industry shows great development. Instruments and systems related biological technology have been developed actively. In this paper, we developed a new micro end-effector for biological cell manipulation. The existing micro end-effector for biological cell manipulation has not any force sensing mechanism. Usually, excessive contact force occurring when the end-effector and a cell collide might make a damage on the cell. However, unfortunately, user can not notice the condition in case of using the existing end-effector. In order to overcome we proposed the improved micro end-effector having a force sensing mechanism. This paper presents the design concepts of the new micro end-effector. We carried out calibration of the force sensor and tested the performance of the proposed micro end-effector. Through a series of experiments the new micro end-effector shows the possibility of application for precision biological cell manipulation such as DNA operation

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.246-250
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• 2003

In this study, two new types of micro-grippers in which micro-fingers are actuated by piezoelectric multi-layer benders and stacks are introduced for the manipulation of micrometer-sized objects. First, we constructed a 3-chopstick-mechanism tungsten gripper, which is composed of three chopsticks: two are designed to grip micro-objects, and tile third is used to help grasp and release the objects through overcoming especially electrostatic force among some surface effects including electrostatic, van der Waals forces and surface tension. Second, a 2-chopstick-mechanism silicon micro-gripper that uses an integrated force sensor to control the gripping force was developed. The micro-gripper is composed of a piezoelectric multilayer bender for actuating the gripper fingers, silicon fingertips fabricated by use of silicon-based micromachining, and supplementary supports. The micro-gripper is referred to as a hybrid-type micro-gripper because it is composed of two main components; micro-fingertips fabricated using micromachining technology to integrate a very sensitive force sensor for measuring the gripping force, and piezoelectric gripper finger actuators that are capable of large gripping forces and moving strokes. The gripping force signal was found to have a sensitivity of 667 N/V. To the design of each of components of both of the grippers. a systematic design approach was applied, which made it possible to establish the functional requirements and design parameters of the micro-grippers. The micro-grippers were installed on a manual manipulator to assess its performance in tasks such as moving micro-objects from one position to a desired position. The experiment showed that the micro-grippers function effectively.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.668-674
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• 2006

In order to develop a cell based robot, we present a micro-mechanical force measurement system for the biological muscle actuators, which utilize glucose as a power source. The proposed measurement system is composed of a micro-manipulator, a force transducer with a glass probe, a signal processor, an inverted microscope and video recording system. Using this measurement system, the contractile force and frequency of the cardiac myocytes were measured in real time and the magnitudes of the contractile force of each cardiac myocyte under different conditions were compared. From the quantitative experimental results, we could estimate that the force of cardiac myocytes is about $20\sim40{\mu}N$, and show that there are differences between the control cells and the micro-patterned cells.

• Ceramist
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.38-47
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• 2004

최근 micro structure, micro sensor, micro actuator 및 microelectronics 등을 활용하는 microelectromecha-nical systems (MEMS) 기술은 마이크로 로봇, micro manipulation, 광학 소자 및 시스템, 유체, 열, 바이오 및 화학공정 등을 위한 시스템 그리고 atomic force와 scanning tunneling microscope 등에 사용되는 다양한 소자 등 많은 잠재력을 가지고 있다. 이들 응용 분야 들은 micro actuator와 같은 mechanical power source가 요구되는 경우가 있다. 압전 특성을 포함하는 강유전체 재료는 이러한 micro actuator를 위해 여러 가지 다양한 장점을 지니고 있는데, 이들을 정리하면 다음과 같다. (중략)

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.411-417
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• 2004

Recently, instruments and systems related on biological technology have been enormously developed. Particularly, many researches for biological cell injection have been carried out. Usually, excessive contact force occurring when the end-effector and a biological cell contact might make a damage on the cell. Unfortunately, the excessive force could easily destroy the membrane and tissue of the cell. In order to overcome the problem, we proposed a new injection system for biological cell manipulation. The proposed injection system can measure the contact force between a pipette and a cell by using a force sensor. Also, we used vision technology to correctly guide the tip of the pipette to the cell. Consequently, the proposed injection system could safely manipulate the biological cells without any damage. This paper presents the introduction of our new injection system and design concepts of the new micro end-effector. Through a series of experiments the proposed injection system shows the possibility of application for precision biological cell manipulation such as DNA operation.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.2451-2456
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• 2003

In biological cell manipulation, manual thrust or penetration of an injection pipette into an egg is currently performed by a skilled operator, relying only on visual feedback information. Massive load of various micro injection of either genes, fluid or cells in the postgenomic era calls a more reliable and automatic micro injection system that can test hundreds of genes or cell types at a single experiment. We initiated to study cellular force sensing in zebrafish eggs as the first step for the development of a more controllable micro injection system by any inexperienced operator. Zebrafish eggs at different developmental stages were collected and an integrated biomanipulation system was employed to measure cellular force during penetrating the egg envelope, the chorion. First of all, the biomanipulation system integrated with cellular force sensing instrument is implemented to measure the penetration force of cell membranes and characterize mechanical properties of zebrafish embryo cells. Furthermore, implementation of cellular force sensing system and calibration are presented. Finally, the cellular force sensing of penetrating cell membranes at each developmental stages was experimentally performed. The results demonstrated that the biomanipulation system with force sensing capability can measure cellular force at real-time while the injection operation is undergoing. The magnitude of the measured force was in the range of several hundreds of uN. The precise real-time measurement should provide the first step forwards for the development of an automatic and reliable injection system of various materials into biological cells.