Cyber-Physical Systems for Micro-/Nano-assembly Operations: a Survey

Abstract Purpose of Review Latest requirements of the global market force manufacturing systems to a change for a new production paradigm (Industry 4.0). Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) appear as a solution to be deployed in different manufacturing fields, especially those with high added value and technological complexity, high product variants, and short time to market. In this sense, this paper aims at reviewing the introduction level of CPS technologies in micro/nano-manufacturing and how these technologies could cope with these challenging manufacturing requirements. Recent Findings The introduction of CPS is still in its infancy on many industrial applications, but it actually demonstrates its potential to support future manufacturing paradigm. However, only few research works in micro/nano-manufacturing considered CPS frameworks, since the concept barely appeared a decade ago. Summary Some contributions have revealed the potential of CPS technologies to improve manufacturing performance which may be scaled to the micro/nano-manufacturing. IoT-based frameworks with VR/AR technologies allow distributed and collaborative systems, or agent-based architectures with advance algorithm implementations that improve the flexibility and performance of micro-/nano-assembly operations. Future research of CPS in micro-/nano-assembly operations should be followed by more studies of its technical deployment showing its implications under other perspectives, i.e. sustainable, economic, and social point of views, to take full advance of all its features

Control techniques for mechatronic assisted surgery

The treatment response for traumatic head injured patients can be improved by using an autonomous robotic system to perform basic, time-critical emergency neurosurgery, reducing costs and saving lives. In this thesis, a concept for a neurosurgical robotic system is proposed to perform three specific emergency neurosurgical procedures; they are the placement of an intracranial pressure monitor, external ventricular drainage, and the evacuation of chronic subdural haematoma. The control methods for this system are investigated following a curiosity led approach. Individual problems are interpreted in the widest sense and solutions posed that are general in nature. Three main contributions result from this approach: 1) a clinical evidence based review of surgical robotics and a methodology to assist in their evaluation, 2) a new controller for soft-grasping of objects, and 3) new propositions and theorems for chatter suppression sliding mode controllers. These contributions directly assist in the design of the control system of the neurosurgical robot and, more broadly, impact other areas outside the narrow con nes of the target application. A methodology for applied research in surgical robotics is proposed. The methodology sets out a hierarchy of criteria consisting of three tiers, with the most important being the bottom tier and the least being the top tier. It is argued that a robotic system must adhere to these criteria in order to achieve acceptability. Recent commercial systems are reviewed against these criteria, and are found to conform up to at least the bottom and intermediate tiers. However, the lack of conformity to the criteria in the top tier, combined with the inability to conclusively prove increased clinical benefit, particularly symptomatic benefit, is shown to be hampering the potential of surgical robotics in gaining wide establishment. A control scheme for soft-grasping objects is presented. Grasping a soft or fragile object requires the use of minimum contact force to prevent damage or deformation. Without precise knowledge of object parameters, real-time feedback control must be used to regulate the contact force and prevent slip. Moreover, the controller must be designed to have good performance characteristics to rapidly modulate the fingertip contact force in response to a slip event. A fuzzy sliding mode controller combined with a disturbance observer is proposed for contact force control and slip prevention. The robustness of the controller is evaluated through both simulation and experiment. The control scheme was found to be effective and robust to parameter uncertainty. When tested on a real system, however, chattering phenomena, well known to sliding mode research, was induced by the unmodelled suboptimal components of the system (filtering, backlash, and time delays). This reduced the controller performance. The problem of chattering and potential solutions are explored. Real systems using sliding mode controllers, such as the control scheme for soft-grasping, have a tendency to chatter at high frequencies. This is caused by the sliding mode controller interacting with un-modelled parasitic dynamics at the actuator-input and sensor-output of the plant. As a result, new chatter-suppression sliding mode controllers have been developed, which introduce new parameters into the system. However, the effect any particular choice of parameters has on system performance is unclear, and this can make tuning the parameters to meet a set of performance criteria di cult. In this thesis, common chatter-suppression sliding mode control strategies are surveyed and simple design and estimation methods are proposed. The estimation methods predict convergence, chattering amplitude, settling time, and maximum output bounds (overshoot) using harmonic linearizations and invariant ellipsoid sets

Hybrid optical and magnetic manipulation of microrobots

Microrobotic systems have the potential to provide precise manipulation on cellular level for diagnostics, drug delivery and surgical interventions. These systems vary from tethered to untethered microrobots with sizes below a micrometer to a few microns. However, their main disadvantage is that they do not have the same capabilities in terms of degrees-of-freedom, sensing and control as macroscale robotic systems. In particular, their lack of on-board sensing for pose or force feedback, their control methods and interface for automated or manual user control are limited as well as their geometry has few degrees-of-freedom making three-dimensional manipulation more challenging. This PhD project is on the development of a micromanipulation framework that can be used for single cell analysis using the Optical Tweezers as well as a combination of optical trapping and magnetic actuation for recon gurable microassembly. The focus is on untethered microrobots with sizes up to a few tens of microns that can be used in enclosed environments for ex vivo and in vitro medical applications. The work presented investigates the following aspects of microrobots for single cell analysis: i) The microfabrication procedure and design considerations that are taken into account in order to fabricate components for three-dimensional micromanipulation and microassembly, ii) vision-based methods to provide 6-degree-offreedom position and orientation feedback which is essential for closed-loop control, iii) manual and shared control manipulation methodologies that take into account the user input for multiple microrobot or three-dimensional microstructure manipulation and iv) a methodology for recon gurable microassembly combining the Optical Tweezers with magnetic actuation into a hybrid method of actuation for microassembly.Open Acces

Viscoelasticity and Structure of Soft Biological Interfaces: From Artificial Models to Living Tissues

The primary aim of this thesis is to shed a quantitative light on the mechanics of dynamic biological interfaces with different levels of structural complexities, ranging from lung surfactant models to regenerating tissues. In chapter 3, the correlation between biophysical properties and function of the native extracellular matrix (ECM), mesoglea, of the freshwater polyp Hydra was studied. In the body design of Hydra, mesoglea acts as an interlayer between external (ectodermal) and internal (endodermal) cell layers, sustaining the mechanical integrity of polyps. In this study, nano-focused grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering on isolated mesoglea revealed that the packing order of Hydra collagen type I was comparable to its vertebrate homologue. The structure was anisotropic with respect to the oral-aboral axis, supporting the extensive extension and contractions of the body along this axis. In the next step, the spatio-temporal evolution of mesoglea mechanics was tracked ex vivo by nano-indentation using an atomic force microscope. The experimental data demonstrated that freshly detached polyps initially had a uniformly soft mesoglea, but mesoglea changed the characteristic "elasticity patterns" during the asexual reproduction. This change could be explained by a quantitative proteome analysis, implying that the mechanical remodeling of Hydra was highly correlated with protease expression activity. When the body column tissue was transformed into head tissue either by a drug or by the over-expression of β-catenin, mesoglea had low elastic moduli over the whole body. This result suggests that the spatio-temporal patterns in mesoglea mechanics is strongly correlated with the stem cell activity. In chapter 4 a highly sensitive two-fingered micro-robotic hand was used to determine the viscoelastic properties of Hydra tissue fragments (regenerates) during early stages of regeneration. Owing to the dexterous grasping motion of microobjects realized by the micro-robot, the bulk elastic modulus of Hydra regenerates could be determined by linearly compressing the tissue by keeping the strain level low. Under a constant strain, the stress relaxation behavior could be interpreted by applying the Maxwell model of viscoelastic materials, yielding the Stokes frictional coefficient and viscous modulus. Furthermore, the forces actively generated by the regenerate were measured and shown to correlate well with shape fluctuations of a freely regenerating sample. In chapter 5, lung surfactant inactivation by serum proteins during the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was simulated. As the model of dynamic, oscillating interfaces in lung, the competitive adsorption of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) to the air/water interface was monitored by periodically changing the surface area. The model was used to investigate the impact of perfluorohexane (PFH) as a potential therapeutics. The lipid-protein composite films at the air/water interface in the presence and absence of PFH gas could be visualized by fluorescence microscopy, indicating an accelerated displacement of a pre-adsorbed BSA by DPPC in saturated PFH atmosphere. The acceleration of BSA-DPPC replacement under PFH atmosphere was accompanied by significant changes in viscoelasticity of the interface, suggesting the incorporation of PFH to the protein layer