Design and Experimental Investigation of a Force Sensor for a 3-D Electrothermal Microgripper

Guoning Si; Zhixin Zhao; Zhuo Zhang; Xuping Zhang

doi:10.1109/JSEN.2023.3336214

Design and Experimental Investigation of a Force Sensor for a 3-D Electrothermal Microgripper

Guoning Si, Zhixin Zhao, Zhuo Zhang, Xuping Zhang^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering - Mechatronics and Dynamics

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

This article presents a force sensor designed for a 3-D electrothermal microgripper. The novel force sensor structure incorporates a strain gauge attached to a compliant beam segment to accurately measure the forces exerted at the microgripper tip. First, a comprehensive theoretical model for the force-strain-voltage relationship of the sensor is established. The model consists of two parts: force-strain with the static analysis of a flexible hinge resembling a composite beam, and strain-voltage with the physics of the sensing interface. In the force-strain part of the model, two equivalent transformations (the equivalent transformation of composite beam cross section to T-shaped beam cross section and the equivalent transformation of unconnected beam cross section to connected beam cross section) are used to establish the theoretical formulation between the gripping force and the sensor strain of the microgripper. The model is verified through the finite-element simulation and further validated through experimental testing of an in-house developed single finger with a comparison. According to the experimental results, the force sensor can detect the gripping force in the millinewton range. Finally, three force sensors are integrated into an in-house-developed 3-D electrothermal microgripper and the force detection with the proposed sensor design is further demonstrated with a series of micromanipulation experiments. The results reveal the dynamic variations in the microgripping force during 3-D micromanipulation due to the vibration of the mechanism, the relative sliding motion, and the gravity of the microspheres.

Original language	English
Journal	IEEE Sensors Journal
Volume	24
Issue	3
Pages (from-to)	2934-2944
Number of pages	11
ISSN	1530-437X
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/JSEN.2023.3336214
Publication status	Published - Feb 2024

Keywords

3-D microforce sensor design
3-D microgripping force sensing
micromanipulation with 3-D electrothermal microgrippers
theoretical modeling of 3-D microgripper forces

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10.1109/JSEN.2023.3336214

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title = "Design and Experimental Investigation of a Force Sensor for a 3-D Electrothermal Microgripper",

abstract = "This article presents a force sensor designed for a 3-D electrothermal microgripper. The novel force sensor structure incorporates a strain gauge attached to a compliant beam segment to accurately measure the forces exerted at the microgripper tip. First, a comprehensive theoretical model for the force-strain-voltage relationship of the sensor is established. The model consists of two parts: force-strain with the static analysis of a flexible hinge resembling a composite beam, and strain-voltage with the physics of the sensing interface. In the force-strain part of the model, two equivalent transformations (the equivalent transformation of composite beam cross section to T-shaped beam cross section and the equivalent transformation of unconnected beam cross section to connected beam cross section) are used to establish the theoretical formulation between the gripping force and the sensor strain of the microgripper. The model is verified through the finite-element simulation and further validated through experimental testing of an in-house developed single finger with a comparison. According to the experimental results, the force sensor can detect the gripping force in the millinewton range. Finally, three force sensors are integrated into an in-house-developed 3-D electrothermal microgripper and the force detection with the proposed sensor design is further demonstrated with a series of micromanipulation experiments. The results reveal the dynamic variations in the microgripping force during 3-D micromanipulation due to the vibration of the mechanism, the relative sliding motion, and the gravity of the microspheres.",

keywords = "3-D microforce sensor design, 3-D microgripping force sensing, micromanipulation with 3-D electrothermal microgrippers, theoretical modeling of 3-D microgripper forces",

author = "Guoning Si and Zhixin Zhao and Zhuo Zhang and Xuping Zhang",

year = "2024",

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AU - Zhao, Zhixin

AU - Zhang, Zhuo

AU - Zhang, Xuping

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Y1 - 2024/2

N2 - This article presents a force sensor designed for a 3-D electrothermal microgripper. The novel force sensor structure incorporates a strain gauge attached to a compliant beam segment to accurately measure the forces exerted at the microgripper tip. First, a comprehensive theoretical model for the force-strain-voltage relationship of the sensor is established. The model consists of two parts: force-strain with the static analysis of a flexible hinge resembling a composite beam, and strain-voltage with the physics of the sensing interface. In the force-strain part of the model, two equivalent transformations (the equivalent transformation of composite beam cross section to T-shaped beam cross section and the equivalent transformation of unconnected beam cross section to connected beam cross section) are used to establish the theoretical formulation between the gripping force and the sensor strain of the microgripper. The model is verified through the finite-element simulation and further validated through experimental testing of an in-house developed single finger with a comparison. According to the experimental results, the force sensor can detect the gripping force in the millinewton range. Finally, three force sensors are integrated into an in-house-developed 3-D electrothermal microgripper and the force detection with the proposed sensor design is further demonstrated with a series of micromanipulation experiments. The results reveal the dynamic variations in the microgripping force during 3-D micromanipulation due to the vibration of the mechanism, the relative sliding motion, and the gravity of the microspheres.

AB - This article presents a force sensor designed for a 3-D electrothermal microgripper. The novel force sensor structure incorporates a strain gauge attached to a compliant beam segment to accurately measure the forces exerted at the microgripper tip. First, a comprehensive theoretical model for the force-strain-voltage relationship of the sensor is established. The model consists of two parts: force-strain with the static analysis of a flexible hinge resembling a composite beam, and strain-voltage with the physics of the sensing interface. In the force-strain part of the model, two equivalent transformations (the equivalent transformation of composite beam cross section to T-shaped beam cross section and the equivalent transformation of unconnected beam cross section to connected beam cross section) are used to establish the theoretical formulation between the gripping force and the sensor strain of the microgripper. The model is verified through the finite-element simulation and further validated through experimental testing of an in-house developed single finger with a comparison. According to the experimental results, the force sensor can detect the gripping force in the millinewton range. Finally, three force sensors are integrated into an in-house-developed 3-D electrothermal microgripper and the force detection with the proposed sensor design is further demonstrated with a series of micromanipulation experiments. The results reveal the dynamic variations in the microgripping force during 3-D micromanipulation due to the vibration of the mechanism, the relative sliding motion, and the gravity of the microspheres.

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Design and Experimental Investigation of a Force Sensor for a 3-D Electrothermal Microgripper

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