Development of a piezo-actuated micro-teleoperation system for cell manipulation

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Biomedical Engineering
• Mechatronics

Background:

• Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) success rates are limited by poor injection force control and lengthy operator training.
• Macro-micro-teleoperation systems can bridge operator movements and micro-level tasks, but piezoelectric actuator hysteresis hinders accuracy.
• Accurate needle positioning for cell membrane penetration is crucial for micromanipulation tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel teleoperation system for micromanipulation tasks, specifically improving intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
• To address piezoelectric actuator hysteresis non-linearity for enhanced accuracy in slave manipulator control.
• To achieve precise position and force tracking during cell membrane penetration.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a piezoelectric nano-stage as the slave manipulator in a macro-micro-teleoperation system.
• Applied the Prandtl-Ishlinskii (PI) model for feedforward hysteresis compensation of the piezoelectric actuator.
• Implemented a sliding mode-based impedance control with perturbation estimation to handle model uncertainties and errors.

Main Results:

• The system demonstrated stable operation, guaranteed by Llewellyn's absolute stability criterion.
• Experimental validation focused on cell membrane penetration tasks.
• Accurate position tracking was achieved during free motion, alongside simultaneous position and force tracking in low-stiffness contact.

Conclusions:

• The developed teleoperation system effectively compensates for piezoelectric actuator hysteresis.
• The controller enables accurate position and force control, crucial for delicate micromanipulation.
• This approach holds potential for improving the success rates and reducing training time for procedures like ICSI.