High-Speed Manipulation of Microobjects Using an Automated Two-Fingered Microhand for 3D Microassembly

To assemble microobjects including biological cells quickly and precisely, a fully automated pick-and-place operation is applied. In micromanipulation in liquid, the challenges include strong adhesion forces and high dynamic viscosity. To solve these problems, a reliable manipulation system and special releasing techniques are indispensable. A microhand having dexterous motion is utilized to grasp an object stably, and an automated stage transports the object quickly. To detach the object adhered to one of the end effectors, two releasing methods—local stream and a dynamic releasing—are utilized. A system using vision-based techniques for the recognition of two fingertips and an object, as well automated releasing methods, can increase the manipulation speed to faster than 800 ms/sphere with a 100% success rate (N = 100). To extend this manipulation technique, 2D and 3D assembly that manipulates several objects is attained by compensating the positional error. Finally, we succeed in assembling 80–120 µm of microbeads and spheroids integrated by NIH3T3 cells.