Microfabricated milliDelta robot set for role in manufacturing and medicine

The milliDelta robot, reported in Science Robotics, was developed by Robert Wood's team at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

By integrating their microfabrication technique with high-performance composite materials that can incorporate flexural joints and bending actuators, the milliDelta can operate with high speed, force, and micrometre precision, reportedly making it compatible with a range of micromanipulation tasks.

In 2011, inspired by pop-up books and origami, Wood's team developed a micro-fabrication approach that enables the assembly of robots from flat sheets of composite materials. Pop-up MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) manufacturing has since been used for the construction of dynamic centimetre-scale machines that can walk away, or fly, as seen with RoboBee, can fly. In their new study, the researchers applied their approach to develop a Delta robot measuring 15mm-by-15mm-by-20mm.

"The physics of scaling told us that bringing down the size of Delta robots would increase their speed and acceleration, and pop-up MEMS manufacturing with its ability to use any material or combination of materials seemed an ideal way to attack this problem," Wood said in a statement. "This approach also allowed us to rapidly go through a number of iterations that led us to the final milliDelta."