Controlled rolling of microobjects for autonomous manipulation

This paper presents our work in developing an autonomous micromanipulation system. The originality of our system is that it takes advantage of adhesion forces to grip micro-objects using an AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) probe. A theoretical analysis of rolling conditions is carried out in order to achieve precise release of an object picked-up by adhesion. Vision control, based on the specificities of optical microscopy, and force control, based on the analysis of the AFM probe, are established. Experiments validate the employed techniques and the proposed manipulation mode.