A low-cost automated micromanipulator

The automated micromanipulator, a device widely used in the life sciences, allows precise three-dimensional positioning of tools and equipment with resolutions at or well below one micrometer, providing cellular-level movement resolution in a highly-controlled manner. The cost of a state-of-the- art electromechanical micromanipulator can be upwards of ten thousand dollars for a complete system, and can be a major, if not limiting, expense for labs, startups, and even hobbyists in these fields. The objective of this project is to build a proof-of-concept micromanipulation device that provides similar levels of performance, but at a price in the range of several hundred dollars. We intend to achieve this by utilizing equipment made recently and inexpensively available at low-costs because of the hobbyist 3D-printing market, as well as advances in piezoelectrics and imaging technologies from the last five years. By accomplishing this, the barrier of entry for work requiring sub-micron measurement will be lowered significantly.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Phan, Tuan M.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joe Steinmeyer.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123077

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123077