Bioinspired Multilegged Piezoelectric Robot: The Design Philosophy Aiming at High-Performance Micromanipulation

Micromanipulation robots are powerful tools to explore and reform the microscope world, but it is difficult to integrate high precision, long stroke, strong carrying capability, and multi-degree of freedom (DOF) motions in a single robot. To address this challenge, herein a bioinspired hexapod piezoelectric robot (PER-hexapod) aiming at high-performance micromanipulation is presented. Specifically, two piezoelectric elements are integrated in a functional module to provide 3-DOF precise motions, the collaboration of six functional modules generates the multi-DOF motions, and the multimode fusion of three gaits facilitates the cross-scale motion. The robot outputs 6-DOF motions with resolutions higher than 4 nm or 0.2 mu rad, and unlimited traveling ranges of in-plane motions are accomplished. PER-hexapod, whose weight is 0.45 kg, can stably drive a carrying load of 10 kg. In addition, PER-hexapod realizes the accurate positioning with the root-mean-square error less than 5 nm. Thus, it has potential applications in the precise positioning in a large range, such as the batch injection of multiple cells and micromachining on large surfaces. Not only PER-hexapod, but many other robots can be also designed with the same philosophy to construct micromanipulation systems for various requirements.

Automated summary

This paper introduces a high-performance micromanipulation robot using bioinspired hexapod piezoelectric technology, which can achieve high precision, multi-degree of freedom motion, and large carrying capacity. The robot can output 6-DOF motions with resolutions in the nanometer scale or smaller, and has high positioning accuracy.