Submerged freeze gripper to manipulate Micro-objects.

International audienceManipulating microscopic objects with the necessary dexterity still remains a very challenging task. In this paper, we propose a freeze gripper able to manipulate micro-objects in an innovative way, i.e. in submerged surroundings. We first review the influences of dry and liquid media on contact forces and non contact forces. This comparative analyse clearly shows the interest of the liquid medium. A survey of different microhandling systems based on the use of ice is also given. Then submerged microgripper with frozen water as an active end-effector is porposed as a promising new approach for manipulating low thermal conductive micro-objects. A prototype using the Peltier effect has been numerically modeled and developed. It is described in the paper. Experimental results validate the cooling and warming of the freeze gripper. A generic micromanipulation task is the purpose of further work