A flexible microrobot-based microassembly station

A wide range of microcomponents can today be produced using various microfa brication techniques. The assembly of complex microsystems consisting of se veral single components (i.e., hybrid microsystems) is, however, a difficul t task that is seen to be a real challenge for the robotic research communi ty. It is necessary to conceive flexible, highly precise and fast microasse mbly methods. In this paper, the development of a microrobot-based microass embly station is presented. Mobile piezoelectric microrobots with dimension s of some cm(3) and with at least 5 DOF can perform various manipulations e ither under a light microscope or within the vacuum chamber of a scanning e lectron microscope. The components of the station developed and its control system are described. The latter comprises a vision-based sensor system fo r automatic robot control, user interfaces, a re-configurable parallel comp uter array and an assembly planning system. Specific problems that occur wh en using microrobots in an SEM and our research activities on the developme nt of force microsensors integrated into the microrobots' grippers are desc ribed as well.