Modeling and Experimental Characterization of an Untethered Magnetic Micro-Robot
International Journal of Robotics Research
Subassembly generation via mechanical conformational switches
Artificial Life
Robotic submerged microhandling controlled by pH swithching
IROS'09 Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE/RSJ international conference on Intelligent robots and systems
IROS'09 Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE/RSJ international conference on Intelligent robots and systems
Small, Fast, and Under Control: Wireless Resonant Magnetic Micro-agents
International Journal of Robotics Research
Modular architecture of the microfactories for automatic micro-assembly
Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing
Stochastic modular robotic systems: a study of fluidic assembly strategies
IEEE Transactions on Robotics
International Journal of Robotics Research
Control of Multiple Heterogeneous Magnetic Microrobots in Two Dimensions on Nonspecialized Surfaces
IEEE Transactions on Robotics
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We present a scheme of two-dimensional module reconfiguration based on interactions between microscale magnetic modules with potential applications in micro-robotics, particularly in automatic micro-fabrication, non-invasive diagnoses, micro-surgery, and drug delivery at unreachable sites. The approach taken is a mixture of a top-down engineering approach and a bottom-up self-assembly approach, where reconfiguration commands are delivered from outside the workspace in the form of a magnetic field, which directs configuration changes in the set of modules by changing the strengths of individual magnetic moments. The magnetic modules in the study, 750 μm in size, are constrained to a liquid surface, providing a simplified two degrees of freedom translational motion environment, where the laterally interacting inter-module magnetic force determines the assembly configuration. In this way, the relative distance of the magnets simply reflects the strength of the interactions, and thus easily enables the design of the system's reconfiguration scenario. Reconfiguration occurs when the magnetic attractive forces are changed. To direct the assembly morphology in a controlled manner, the modules are addressed magnetically by incorporating a different magnetic material into each module type, each with different magnetic hysteresis characteristics. For addressing different modules' magnetizations, we incorporate three different magnetic materials that feature different magnetic coercivities. This allows for the independent control of the magnetization of each material using applied external fields of varying strength, leading to arbitrary configuration change in a three-module set and limited control over a four-module set. General cases with more than five modules are further discussed.