Wiktionary
n. a device, used for micromanipulation, consisting of microscopic needles and instruments viewed through a microscope
Wikipedia
A micromanipulator is a device which is used to physically interact with a sample under a microscope, where a level of precision of movement is necessary that cannot be achieved by the unaided human hand. It may typically consist of an input joystick, a mechanism for reducing the range of movement and an output section with the means of holding a microtool to hold, inject, cut or otherwise manipulate the object as required. The mechanism for reducing the movement usually requires the movement to be free of backlash. This is achieved by the use of kinematic constraints to allow each part of the mechanism to move only in one or more chosen degrees of freedom, which achieves a high precision and repeatability of movement, usually at the expense of some absolute accuracy.
Usage examples of "micromanipulator".
Despite the range of computerized equipment on the dock, from overhead-tracking forklifts that could shift multi-ton reactor cores to tweezerlike micromanipulators capable of extracting the black specks of monocloned seed stock from radiation-resistant transport gel, there was still a need for the kind of sheer muscle mass that could break open a wooden packing crate from one of the low-tech trading worlds.
Turner followed him down the room, past a worktable where a micromanipulator waited beneath its dustcover Past the dusty rectangular eyes of a bank of aged monitors, one of them with a shattered screen.