Millimeter-Scale Robotics: Fabrication, Actuation, and Medical Devices

Abstract

Opportunities lie on the millimeter scale to develop robotic surgical tools that achieve greater access and give surgeons greater control deep inside the human body. The key challenge is that standard approaches to fabrication and motion generation do not scale well to the millimeter-scale. In my dissertation, I describe several projects that aim to fill this gap through the development of new fabrication, actuation, and design techniques: (1) a centimeter-scale surgical laser steering tool; (2) a millimeter-scale surgical laser steering tool; (3) a new method for fabricating nitinol living hinges; and (4) high-performance millimeter-sized piezoelectric flextensional actuators. These efforts draw from a common set of laminate-based manufacturing and laser micromachining techniques and are additionally cohered around the theme of millimeter-scale motion generation and control.