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Grant funds further micro robot research

A Sheffield Hallam University product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jul 1, 2002

Researchers in the Electronics Research Group of Sheffield Hallam University's School of Engineering have just received a grant worth GBP 180,000 (over 3 years) for their MiCRoN project.

Researchers in the Electronics Research Group of Sheffield Hallam University's School of Engineering have just received a grant worth GBP 180,000 (over 3 years) for their MiCRoN project.

The project will develop further the vision system for a new generation of micro-robots designed to take on smaller tasks than ever before.

With their micro grippers and visual sensors, these robots, which are only a few cubic centimetres in size, will be able to move and cut samples on the object slide of a microscope to the precision of one millionth of a millimeter (a nanometre).

Micro-robots can typically be used in biology, medicine, micro assembly and chip testing.

The research team, based in the School's Microsystems and Machine Vision Laboratory, received the financial backing for the project through the European Union's ESPRIT programme.

It continues the work the team has been doing since 1998, into developing the Miniman 5 micro-robot.

The MiCRoN project will take the Miniman 5 to the next level of miniaturisation.

A powerful computer system using low-cost PC-compatible hardware will control the robots.

As with Miniman 5, the research is collaborative involving universities in six other European countries and industry partners Kammrath and Weiss of Dortmund, Germany.

Project leader Dr Jon Travis says, "This is a great opportunity to continue the progress made on the Miniman project, and we look forward to continuing our work with our colleagues in the other universities.

The project is a positive endorsement of the work that we are doing in microsystems and machine vision at Sheffield Hallam".

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