This is incredibly cool. The research video showing the little "robots" placing drops of glue to assemble carbon fibers is AWESOME! I haven't been this excited by an internet video in months.
My immediate thought: how could this be used to make a really cheap desktop pick-and-place system?
And potentially higher repeat accuracy because you don't have the rotational joints to deal with. Those are pretty lousy when you get further out from the axis of rotation.
I imagine having two little microbots working like tweezers. Theoretically, it's possible to manipulate the field to make one of the robots rotate. Two magnets rotating in tandem could make something like a tiny pair of tweezers.
The problem: there is solderpaste on the board before placement. Therefore, you have to bring the components to the board from above and push them into the solder paste. The suction based pick and place machines are well suited for this task. Tiny robots walking over the board (with lots of obstructions such as solder-paste and through holes) are not such a good match.
Actually, I bet this would be possible if the bots had a tiny magnetically actuated suction piston. You’d have to figure out how to create electromagnetic force in the z-direction independently from the x-y force though. Not sure if that’s possible.
Put the whole thing in the dark, small solar cells on top and then short circuit them through a coil, that could power a tiny gripper whenever they are lit up.
Comments
This is incredibly cool. The research video showing the little "robots" placing drops of glue to assemble carbon fibers is AWESOME! I haven't been this excited by an internet video in months.
My immediate thought: how could this be used to make a really cheap desktop pick-and-place system?
There's a YouTuber named Stephen Hawes[1] whose made his own pick and place machine.
[1] https://youtu.be/6Sa9jNhaRbg
Yeah, but Index prices out at like $500 plus labor to put it together.
This has the potential for:
* way less material cost
* way less assembly, and
* way higher reliability due to fewer moving parts
And potentially higher repeat accuracy because you don't have the rotational joints to deal with. Those are pretty lousy when you get further out from the axis of rotation.
Get it to make more little robots!
Even smaller ones...
Magnetic drive is poor below the micron scale, but you could switch to electrostatic. No equivalent of diamagnetism to draw on tho.
The limitations of homebrew pick-and-place are the vision system, not the control system.
If you solved the vision system problems, you could probably build a pick-and-place out of Legos.
Someone made one, and it’s amazing.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=LHsl9jSOO6M
There’d have to be some way to temporary bond components to the bots. Regular pick n’ place machines use suction.
I imagine having two little microbots working like tweezers. Theoretically, it's possible to manipulate the field to make one of the robots rotate. Two magnets rotating in tandem could make something like a tiny pair of tweezers.
The problem: there is solderpaste on the board before placement. Therefore, you have to bring the components to the board from above and push them into the solder paste. The suction based pick and place machines are well suited for this task. Tiny robots walking over the board (with lots of obstructions such as solder-paste and through holes) are not such a good match.
Suspend the board upside-down above the robots. They just need to smoosh parts on from below.
I.e., not practical, but fun to think about.
Actually, I bet this would be possible if the bots had a tiny magnetically actuated suction piston. You’d have to figure out how to create electromagnetic force in the z-direction independently from the x-y force though. Not sure if that’s possible.
Heavy components could be held by multiple bots.
Why couldn't the bots apply the paste as well?
I think of this being a tiny version of a home SMT assembly where you're dispensing paste and placing components manually, one at a time.
I also suspect that you can have the target PCB separate from the one the magnets move on.
Or have them be asymmetrical, one has the half-tweezer at the left side the frame, the other at the right.
Put the whole thing in the dark, small solar cells on top and then short circuit them through a coil, that could power a tiny gripper whenever they are lit up.
Steer a laser beam over to the robot.
Most likely not, but bio/chemical experiments yes.