A task-oriented teleoperation system for assembly in the microworld

Operating a robot in the micro/nano-world presents challenges not found in the macro-world. Due to the small dimensions, the operator has no direct access to the objects and must assemble them by teleoperation. To allow a good manipulability, we propose a mixed teleoperation system which is composed of both direct and task-oriented teleoperation modes. The operator is provided with a set of visualization and-manipulation tools an a workstation. This paper presents the micro-robot system, discusses some important issues in micro-teleoperation and finally presents some micro-manipulation tasks performed with the system.