Abstract
This paper describes activities of a group of students developing insect-size mechanisms at Small Mechanism Applications Laboratory (SMAL) at our educational institution. Our group focuses on a class of millimeter-size mechanisms larger than micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) but much smaller than ordinary mechanisms seen in our daily life. Seeing the technological trend of electro-mechanical products getting more and more minitualized, we believe this class size of mechanisms has a wide range of future applications in manufacturing, bioengineering, the military, and many other areas. One of the difficult challenges to building this class size of mechanism is a lack of actuator technologies for miniaturization. Today's commonly used actuators for industrial automation, such as electric motors, hydraulic actuators, and pneumatic actuators, are not suited for miniaturization. At SMAL, students have been experimenting with the use of untraditional actuating sources to design miniature mechanisms. Those untraditional actuating sources include but are not limited to electrostatic force, Shape Memory Alloy (SMA), and thermal expansion/contraction. These actuating sources have potentials for simplifying mechanisms, minimizing a number of assembly components, and reducing component weights. Therefore, they are more suited for miniaturization compared to traditional actuating sources. Case studies of developing electrostatic force-driven miniature grippers and suction devices intended for micro-assembly work are described. Brief descriptions of other ongoing work are also presented.