Microbotics based on microphysics: design and control strategy based on attractive force reduction

Recently, so many kinds of micro machines have been developed. Yet, the design and control methodology,of these micro machines is not well established. Difference of dimensions between the macro and micro world causes difference of the influential physical phenomena, motion of the objects, and relative change of the system performance between those worlds. To understand the physical phenomena in the micro world is very important to design, fabricate and control the micro robotic system. For example, attractive forces are dominant in the micro world compared with the gravitational force. Brownian motion is not negligible in the liquid. Since the dominating physical law is completely different between the macro and micro world, we must consider physics in the micro world in designing, fabricating, and controlling miniaturized objects. However, these problems have not been treated so seriously before. In this paper we present a new design and control strategy which will be essential for the microrobotics. Our approach is based on the attractive force reduction. Attractive force reduction methods are mainly focused in this paper. Application example to the micromanipulation is introduced and some experimental results are shown.