Robust microscale grasping through a multimodel design: synthesis and real time implementation

This paper deals with robust force control at the microscale for safe manipulation of deformable soft materials. Since mechanical properties of micrometer sized objects are highly uncertain, instability often occurs during a gripping task. This leads to object damage or destruction due to excessive gripping force. In this paper we propose the design of a robust dynamic output feedback controller that is able to insure desired performances for a set of 65 soft and resilient microspheres whose diameter ranges from 40 μm to 80 μm and stiffness varies from 2.8 N/m to 15.7 N/m. The degrees of freedom of the controller are managed by the use of a set of elementary observers. Robustness with respect to parametric uncertainties is satisfied thanks to an iterative procedure alternating between multimodel closed loop eigenstructure assignment and worst case analysis. The developed controller is of low order and can be implemented in real time. Robust gripping force control is for the first time demonstrated experimentally when dealing with the manipulation of a large number of variable deformable soft materials at the microscale. Both simulations and experimental results validate the interest of such control design approach.