Robust Electrostatic Inchworm Motors for Macroscopic Manipulation and Movement

We report robust microfabricated MEMS electrostatic inchworm motors moving macroscopic objects: a motor in a $14.5\times 9.5\times 1.2\text{mm}$ gripper with 3mm displacement and 15mN force lifting a 1g weight, and an identical motor moving a 100mm long 230mg shuttle an 80mm distance horizontally at up to 5mm/s. This is an order of magnitude larger than previous electrostatic inchworm motors and demonstrates competitiveness with piezoelectric motors for millimeter-scale actuation for microrobotics.