Actuator 2002, 8th International Conference on New Actuators, Bremen, Germany, June 10-12 2002, pp.

321-324

A NOVEL MICROGRIPPER WITH PARALLEL MOVEMENT OF

GRIPPING ARMS

R. Keoschkerjan1, H. Wurmus2
1)
Fraunhofer-Institute of Reliability and Microintegration, Munich, Germany
2)
Technical University of Ilmenau, Department of Microsystem Technology, Ilmenau, Germany
e-mail: ruben.keoschkerjan@izm-m.fraunhofer.de

Abstract:
The paper presents the development of a new microgripper which can realise a parallel movement of the
gripping arms with possibility for simultaneous positioning of the gripped object. The piezoelectric actuation
principle was used to generate movement of the microgripper compliant mechanism. The developed kinematic
structure of the microgripper allows hundredfold amplification of the piezoelectric element movement and its
continuous transmission to the gripping arms. The microgripper was fabricated by means of a UV-lithographic
process and chemical wet etching technology from microstructurable photosensitive glass. The parallel
microgripper was microfabricated and tested successfully.

Introduction

The increased demands of the nowadays gripping arm gripped object

microtechnical applications lead to increasing
complexity of the microdevices. These demands can Rx
only be met by realisation of hybrid assemblies. In Ry
order to mount different components, it is essential
to develop new assembling technologies which
enable handling of very small parts. The problems of
handling of very small microoptical,
microelectronical or micromechanical elements in
nano- or micrometer range can be solved using longitudinal axe
special microgrippers and micropositioners [1-4, 6]. a)
Increasing the functionalities of such systems is one
of the important trends in the modern microsystem gripping arm gripped object
technology. However, the majority of the
microgrippers already developed realise only a Rx Rx
rotational movement of the gripping arms [3, 4, 6].
During the gripping process reaction forces act at
the contact points between the gripping arms and the
longitudinal axe

gripped object. In the case of microparts with curved

or especially with circular surface such as
microlenses the reaction forces act perpendicular to
the object surface. (Fig. 1a). The X-component of
the reaction force holds the gripped object between
the gripping arms. The Y-component of the reaction
force however acts parallel to the longitudinal axes
of the microgripper and pushes the gripped object
out of the gripping arms. This negative effect can be
avoided if the gripping process is realised without
Y-component of the reaction force (Fig. 1b). This
can be achieved by using a gripping mechanism
with parallel movement of both gripping arms. In
this case a reliable gripping process can be
guaranteed.
b)
Fig. 1: Gripping forces at the contact:
a) rotational movement of the gripping arms;
b) parallel movement of the gripping arms.
Working principle
Fig. 2 shows schematically the developed
microgripper which realises a parallel movement of
the gripping arms. The kinematic structure consists
of two parallelogram mechanisms (1) and (2) with
flexure hinges (3) which are arranged parallel to
 5 K1
1 gripping arms (8) and (9) and therefore to the
4
7 positioning of the gripped object (Fig. 4).
8 K2

6
2

3
9
Fig. 2: Scheme of the parallel microgripper.

each other and mounted on the base. The
piezoactuator (4) serves as a movement generator
for the microgripper mechanism. It is mounted on
the base (7) and coupled through two force contact
points K1 and K2 to the lever mechanisms (5) and
(6). These two lever mechanisms (5) and (6) serve
for amplifying of the piezoactuator (4) displacement
and simultaneously transmission of this movement
to the gripping arms (8) and (9). The parallelogram
and the lever mechanisms can be designed in such a
way that the piezoactuator movement will be
amplified up to 100 times. The release of the
gripped object can be achieved when the voltage
applied to the piezoactuator (4) is reset and the
gripping arms (8) and (9) are opened due to
elasticity of the flexure hinges (3).
Fig. 3 shows a modification of the new microgripper
with two piezoactuators integrated in the previous
kinematic structure. This microgripper design has an
additional positioning ability. The gripping of an
object is realised through the closing of the gripping
arms (8) and (9) by applying the same voltage to
both piezoactuators (4) and (10). For the additional
positioning of the gripped object, it is necessary to
apply an additional positive voltage to the
piezoactuator (10) and the same negative voltage to
the piezoactuator (4). This electric control initiates
simultaneously an expansion of the piezoactuator
(10) and a contraction of the piezoactuator (4).
5 microgripper kinematic model is shown in Fig. 5,
1
4
7
8 stiffness-damping model. The degree of freedom of
6 of the 5th and 4th order respectively. For the given
2
10
3
9 N=6,
Fig. 3: Scheme of the parallel microgripper with
additional positioning ability
Such opposite deformation of both piezoactuators
leads to the equal parallel displacement of the
Fig. 4: Positioning process of the gripped object.
Design strategy
For the design of the developed microgripper the
following analytical procedure was applied:
- development of the kinematic modell for the
whole compliant structure;
- definition of the piezoactuator and the compliant
mechanism stiffnesses;
- adjusting of the mechanism elasticity to the
piezoactuator stiffness;
- calculation of the microgripper main geometrical
parameters (flexure hinges thickness etc.).
For generation of the movement of the microgripper
mechanism, the piezoelectric actuating principle is
used because of its precision and high efficiency in
the micrometer range. The piezoactuators have a
planar construction and can be simply integrated
into the microgripper after its microfabrication.
Because the deformation of the piezoactuators are in
the micrometer range linear relations in the
compliant mechanism (Hook law) can be assumed.
Under this condition the rotation point of the flexure
hinge coincides with its symmetry centre during the
deformations. In this case the flexure hinges can be
approximated with a rotational kinematic pair with
additional bending stiffness. The whole
where the piezoactuator is approximated as a mass-
a mechanism can be calculated as:
F= 3×N - 2×P5 - P4, (1)
where N is the number of movable mechanism links,
the P5 and P4 are the number of the kinematic pairs
compliant mechanism they are:
P5=8, P4=1,
and the degree of freedom is:
F=3×6 – 2×8 – 1 = 1.
 thickness of the flexure hinge under condition (3)
5 3
D E can be defined as:
4 B
A −1
C C´
G F 9π R
0.5 2
K P l FK  l FG  l FG  
2

KP
2
h = 2.5 2 − 2 + 5   
K 4E t  l AB  AB  
l
1 CP MP
(7)
This strategy was used to design a microgripper for
Fig. 5: Kinematic model of the microgripper
the given piezoactuator (piezomaterial PK51) with
the following parameters:
This means that the moving function of the output
links (gripping arms) is defined through only one dimensions: 2×18×0.2 mm3,
input function (deformation of the piezoactuator). E
elastic module: S11 = 7.8×1010 N/m2.
In order to guarantee the functionality of the
microgripper (deformability) the stiffness of the Dependent on the piezoactuator dimensions some
compliant mechanism KM and the piezoactuator KP parameters of the microgripper can be fixed. For the
have to be adjusted to each other: flexure hinges and the compliant mechanism they
KP are:
≥1 . (2) R=500 µm, t=1000 µm, b=1000 µm;
KM and
Both stiffnesses can be defined by energetic method. lAB=0.6 mm, lFK=2.5 mm, lFG=5 mm, lAC=28 mm
The potential energy of the microgripper compliant
mechanism consists of the sum of the single respectively. The permitted thickness of the flexure
potential energies saved in the flexure hinges: hinges calculated by Eq. 7 is h= 100 µm.
The transmission ratio of the whole compliant
1
Ep = ∑ 2K ϕ i
2
i , (3) mechanism is given by:
l FG l AC
where Ki and ϕi are the bending stiffness and the λ= × = 94 (8)
relative bending angle of the single hinge l FK l AB
respectively. The bending stiffness of the flexure
The maximal possible output movement of the
hinge is a function of its geometrical and mechanical
gripping arms can reach the value:
parameters [5]:
Smax=∆L×λ = 4.5×94= 423µm,
2 E t h 2.5
K0 = , (4)
9π R 0.5 where ∆L is the relative deformation of the
piezoactuator at 100 V.
where t, h and R are the height, the thickness and the
radius and E is the elastic modulus of the hinge.
By using the reduction principle of the energetic FEM simulation
method the whole potential energy of the compliant
mechanism is given by: The developed microgrippers were investigated
1 numerically by the FEM. The analysis of the FEM -
E p = K M WK2 , (5)
2
where WK is the movement of the reducing point K
which is equal to the deformation of the
piezoactuator.
The piezoactuator stiffness, which can be used also
for the calculation of the gripping force, is given by:
B⋅H
KP = , (6)
S11 ⋅ L
E

where B×H×L are the piezoactuator dimensions and

E
S11 is the elastic module of the piezomaterial. From
equations (4), (5) and (6), the maximal permitted Fig. 6: FEM simulation of the movement of the
microgripper finger.
results (Fig. 6) has shown a good agreement integration of several actuators, new properties of
between the analytically and numerically obtained the microgrippers can be achieved.
geometrical parameters. Furthermore, the deformed The realisation of the elements with micrometer
state of the microgripper proves the fact of the dimensions such as flexure hinges, compliant
parallel displacement of the gripping fingers. microlevers and parallelogram micromechanisms
(Fig. 9) demonstrates the excellent properties of the
Microfabrication technology glass microfabrication technique for development of
new micromechanical components.
As a material for the microfabrication of the new
microgrippers, microstructurable photosensitive
glass was used. In comparison to silicon, glass
allows to simpler realise the circular profiles of the
flexure hinges with high precision by etching
technologies.
Fig. 7 shows the technological process for the
microfabrication of the microgripper. An aluminium
layer is deposited on the outgoing glass wafer. The
following lithographic and etching steps create a
mask with the microgripper structure in the Al-layer.
The UV exposure and the tempering initiates the so- a)
called anisotropic property in the glass. Finally the
glass wafer with the microgripper structures is
etched in the 10% HF solution (Fig. 8). After the
mounting of the piezoactuators the microgripper
structures were tested successfully.
glass wafer

Al deposition

Al etching

UV exposure
b)
tempering Fig. 9: Elements of the microgripper:
a) arrangement of the gripping fingers;
HF etching b) compliant microlever and parallelogram
micromechanism.
Fig. 7: Technological steps of glass
microfabrication.
References

[1] German patent application. DE 44 05501 C1,

(1995).
[2] Keoschkerjan, R. et al. Piezoelectric X-Y
micropositioner made of photosensitive glass to
form one micro-handling unit. ACTUATOR
(2000), 296-299.
[3] Salim, R.: Gestaltung und mikrotechnische
Realisierung von Mikrogreifern. TU Ilmenau,
Ph.D. thesis, (1997).
[4] Hesselbach, J.; Pittschellis, R.: Miniaturgreifer
Fig. 8: Test structure of the microgripper. für die Mikromontage. 41. Internationales
Wissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Ilmenau (1996).
[5] W. Paros, L. Weisbord. How to design flexure
Conclusions hinges. Machine Design, T-27, (1966), 151-156.
[6] M. Kohl, B. Krevet, E. Just.: SMA microgripper
This study has shown that due to modifications of system. Transducers (2001), 710-713.
the kinematics in the compliant mechanisms and