Si Guoning, Sun Liangying, Zhang Zhuo, Zhang Xuping
School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China.
School of Modern Posts, Xi'an University of Posts and Telecommunications, Xi'an 710061, China.
Micromachines (Basel). 2021 Dec 4;12(12):1512. doi: 10.3390/mi12121512.
This paper presents the theoretical thermal-mechanical modeling and parameter analyses of a novel three-dimensional (3D) electrothermal microgripper with three fingers. Each finger of the microgripper is composed of a bi-directional Z-shaped electrothermal actuator and a 3D U-shaped electrothermal actuator. The bi-directional Z-shaped electrothermal actuator provides the rectilinear motion in two directions. The novel 3D U-shaped electrothermal actuator offers motion with two degrees of freedom (DOFs) in the plane perpendicular to the movement of the Z-shaped actuator. As a result, each finger possesses 3D mobilities with three DOFs. Each beam of the actuators is heated externally with polyimide films. In this work, the static theoretical thermal-mechanical model of the 3D U-shaped electrothermal actuator is established. Finite-element analyses and experimental tests are conducted to verify and validate the model. With this model, parameter analyses are carried out to provide insight and guidance on further improving the 3D U-shaped actuator. Furthermore, a group of micro-manipulation experiments are conducted to demonstrate the flexibility and versality of the 3D microgripper on manipulate different types of small/micro-objects.
本文介绍了一种新型三指三维（3D）电热微夹钳的理论热机械建模与参数分析。微夹钳的每个手指由一个双向Z形电热致动器和一个3D U形电热致动器组成。双向Z形电热致动器提供两个方向的直线运动。新型3D U形电热致动器在垂直于Z形致动器运动的平面内提供具有两个自由度（DOF）的运动。因此，每个手指具有三个自由度的三维移动性。致动器的每根梁都用聚酰亚胺薄膜进行外部加热。在这项工作中，建立了3D U形电热致动器的静态理论热机械模型。进行了有限元分析和实验测试以验证和确认该模型。利用该模型进行参数分析，为进一步改进3D U形致动器提供见解和指导。此外，还进行了一组微操作实验，以证明3D微夹钳在操纵不同类型的小/微物体方面的灵活性和通用性。
