Mark Moll :: publications

Aligning Parts for Micro Assemblies

Mark Moll, Ken Goldberg, Michael A. Erdmann, and Ron Fearing. Aligning Parts for Micro Assemblies. Assembly Automation, 22(1):46–54, February 2002.

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Abstract

Orienting parts that measure only a few micrometers in diameter introduces several challenges that need not be considered at the macro-scale. First, there are several kinds of sticking effects due to Van der Waals forces and static electricity which complicate hand-off motions and release of a part. Second, the degrees of freedom of micro-manipulators are limited. This paper proposes a pair of manipulation primitives and a complete algorithm that addresses these challenges. We will show that a sequence of these two manipulation primitives can uniquely orient any asymmetric part while maintaining contact without sensing. This allows us to apply the same plan to many (identical) parts simultaneously. For asymmetric parts we can find a plan of length O(n) in O(n) time that orients the part, where n is the number of vertices.

BibTeX Entry

@Article{moll+2002:align-parts-micro-assem,
  author =	 "Mark Moll and Ken Goldberg and Michael A. Erdmann and Ron
                  Fearing",
  title =	 "Aligning Parts for Micro Assemblies",
  journal =	 "Assembly Automation",
  year =	 2002,
  volume =	 22,
  number =	 1,
  pages =	 "46--54",
  month =	 feb,
  keywords =	 "micromanipulation, parts orienting, parts feeding,
                  rolling",
  abstract =	 "Orienting parts that measure only a few micrometers in
                  diameter introduces several challenges that need not be
                  considered at the macro-scale. First, there are several
                  kinds of sticking effects due to Van der Waals forces and
                  static electricity which complicate hand-off motions and
                  release of a part. Second, the degrees of freedom of
                  micro-manipulators are limited. This paper proposes a pair
                  of manipulation primitives and a complete algorithm that
                  addresses these challenges. We will show that a sequence
                  of these two manipulation primitives can uniquely orient
                  any asymmetric part while maintaining contact without
                  sensing. This allows us to apply the same plan to many
                  (identical) parts simultaneously. For asymmetric parts we
                  can find a plan of length O(n) in O(n) time
                  that orients the part, where n is the number of
                  vertices.",
}