Friction based locomotion module for mobile MEMS robots

The "modulated friction inertial drive (MFID) principle" is presented as a locomotion solution for mm- size micro robots dealing with both size constraints and limitations in terms of power consumption. Based on one of the configurations of this locomotion principle a locomotion module (10 times 10 mm2) with two degrees of freedom (X, thetasz) has been developed. It consists of two horizontally vibrating masses actuated by electrostatic comb drives and fabricated by DRIE on a SOI wafer. The design as well as calculated and measured actuator displacements and resonance frequencies are presented. First locomotion experiments have shown a linear velocity of 0.207 mm/s for a driving voltage of 30 Vp2p and a power consumption of only 16.6 muW.

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