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Programmable assembly of heterogeneous microparts by an untethered mobile capillary microgripper

2016

Article

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At the sub-millimeter scale, capillary forces enable robust and reversible adhesion between biological organisms and varied substrates. Current human-engineered mobile untethered micromanipulation systems rely on forces which scale poorly or utilize gripper-part designs that promote manipulation. Capillary forces, alternatively, are dependent upon the surface chemistry (which is scale independent) and contact perimeter, which conforms to the part surface. We report a mobile capillary microgripper that is able to pick and place parts of various materials and geometries, and is thus ideal for microassembly tasks that cannot be accomplished by large tethered manipulators. We achieve the programmable assembly of sub-millimeter parts in an enclosed three-dimensional aqueous environment by creating a capillary bridge between the targeted part and a synthetic, untethered, mobile body. The parts include both hydrophilic and hydrophobic components: hydrogel, kapton, human hair, and biological tissue. The 200 μm untethered system can be controlled with five-degrees-of-freedom and advances progress towards autonomous desktop manufacturing for tissue engineering, complex micromachines, microfluidic devices, and meta-materials.

Author(s): Giltinan, Joshua and Diller, Eric and Sitti, Metin
Journal: Lab on a Chip
Volume: 16
Number (issue): 22
Pages: 4445--4457
Year: 2016

Department(s): Physical Intelligence
Research Project(s): Mobile micromanipulation
Bibtex Type: Article (article)

DOI: 10.1039/C6LC00981F

BibTex

@article{giltinan2016programmable,
  title = {Programmable assembly of heterogeneous microparts by an untethered mobile capillary microgripper},
  author = {Giltinan, Joshua and Diller, Eric and Sitti, Metin},
  journal = {Lab on a Chip},
  volume = {16},
  number = {22},
  pages = {4445--4457},
  year = {2016},
  doi = {10.1039/C6LC00981F}
}