ABSTRACT
The study of micromanipulation consists of developing models and fabricating experimental tools for the individual manipulation and characterization of microcomponents. The manipulator covers a large variety of microgrippers (mechanical and optical tweezers, capillary grippers. . .) actuated using numerous physical effects (thermal expansion, piezoelectricity, smart memory alloy. . .). Characterization mainly implies mechanical characterization of stiffness performed, for example,
with an atomic force microscope. The major industrial perspective of micromanipulation is to develop reliable micro-assembly techniques, based on robotic assembly or self-assembly. Both require adequate models to estimate the surface forces disturbing the micromanipulation.
