A tumbling magnetic microrobot with flexible operating modes

This paper presents a magnetic tumbling microrobot design at the micro-scale with flexible operating modes. The microrobot has a dumb-bell shape whose largest dimension is 400 μm. When subjected to an exterior predefined magnetic field, the magnetic microagent performs a tumbling motion driven by the interacting magnetic forces and momentums. By switching the magnetic field during the motion cycle the agent is also able to perform a sliding locomotion that is useful for micromanipulation. The magnetic field providing the drive force is generated by a portable coil system consisting of five electromagnetic coils. Under the available driven field, the prototype has shown adaptable mobility through tumbling mechanism on various types of surface in both dry and fluid environments, and also shown pushing manipulation in viscous fluid. This manipulation force has been experimentally evaluated through testing with AFM tip and a micro force sensor and shown to be on the order of several μNs.

[1]  B.R. Donald,et al.  Planar Microassembly by Parallel Actuation of MEMS Microrobots , 2008, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[2]  Russell H. Taylor,et al.  A Perspective on Medical Robotics , 2006, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[3]  Craig D. McGray,et al.  Power delivery and locomotion of untethered microactuators , 2003 .

[4]  Bradley J. Nelson,et al.  Modeling and Control of Untethered Biomicrorobots in a Fluidic Environment Using Electromagnetic Fields , 2006, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[5]  Metin Sitti,et al.  Modeling and Experimental Characterization of an Untethered Magnetic Micro-Robot , 2009, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[6]  Jake J. Abbott,et al.  Measuring the Magnetic and Hydrodynamic Properties of Assembled-MEMS Microrobots , 2007, Proceedings 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[7]  Metin Sitti,et al.  Two-Dimensional Autonomous Microparticle Manipulation Strategies for Magnetic Microrobots in Fluidic Environments , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[8]  Russell M. Taylor,et al.  Thermally actuated untethered impact-driven locomotive microdevices , 2006 .

[9]  David J. Cappelleri,et al.  A Micro-Scale Magnetic Tumbling Microrobot , 2012 .

[10]  Bradley J. Nelson.  Making Microrobots Move , 2010, ICINCO.

[11]  Metin Sitti,et al.  Control of Multiple Heterogeneous Magnetic Microrobots in Two Dimensions on Nonspecialized Surfaces , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[12]  B.R. Donald,et al.  An untethered, electrostatic, globally controllable MEMS micro-robot , 2006, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[13]  J. Andrew Yeh,et al.  A rolling locomotion method for untethered magnetic microrobots , 2010 .

[14]  Xi Chen,et al.  Design of a Micro-Scale Magnetostrictive Asymmetric Thin Film Bimorph (µMAB) Microrobot , 2010 .

[15]  Max T. Hou,et al.  Development of rolling magnetic microrobots , 2010 .

[16]  Dominic R. Frutiger,et al.  Small, Fast, and Under Control: Wireless Resonant Magnetic Micro-agents , 2010, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[17]  Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos,et al.  Robotic tumbling locomotion , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[18]  Dominic R. Frutiger,et al.  Wireless resonant magnetic microactuator for untethered mobile microrobots , 2008 .

[19]  Metin Sitti,et al.  Two-Dimensional Contact and Noncontact Micromanipulation in Liquid Using an Untethered Mobile Magnetic Microrobot , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[20]  Xi Chen,et al.  A magnetic thin film microrobot with two operating modes , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[21]  Jake J. Abbott,et al.  Modeling Magnetic Torque and Force for Controlled Manipulation of Soft-Magnetic Bodies , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.