Development of a mobile nanohandling robot

Miniaturized nanohandling robots or microrobots are widely used in different fields of application (e.g. microassembly, handling of biological cells or characterisation of nano layers), when a high positioning accuracy in the low μm or nm-range is required. A robot-based nanohandling station using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) or a light microscope is introduced. The microrobots working in that nanohandling station are driven by a novel actuator system. These actuators enable the microrobots to perform movements in coarse- and fine-positioning modes offering a nanometer precision. Preliminary to the long term aim to realize autonomous microrobots, the feasibility of the integration of an on-board power supply has been shown. First simple manipulation tasks performed with a newly developed microrobot are introduced as well.