Control of microassembly-robots by using fuzzy-logic and neural networks

An automated micromanipulation desktop-station that has been developed at t he University of Karlsruhe includes several piezoelectric microrobots capab le of moving over long distances and manipulating in the range of a few nan ometers. In this paper, the control problems of the microrobots and the sen soric problems in the micromanipulation station are discussed. The ability of an intelligent microsystem to adapt itself to the process requirements i s, especially for assembly robots, very important. The microrobots should b e able to operate in a partially defined environment and to guarantee a rea sonable behavior in unpredicted situations. For this, the control methods a re needed, which do not require an exact system model and which allow a rea sonable compromise between the real-time information processing and the amo unt of input data; they must also make definite decisions based on vague or incomplete information. Two promising methods are fuzzy control and contro l by a neural network. The paper presents some approaches to improve the ro bot behaviour by using these advanced control methods. (C) 1999 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.