Abstract
This paper presents a micro-actuator that operates free of any physically restraining tethers. We show how capacitive coupling can be used to deliver power to untethered MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) devices, independently of their position and orientation. Our novel power delivery and actuation mechanisms are designed for use in autonomous mobile robots whose dimensions can be measured in tens to hundreds of micrometers. Test devices utilizing these mechanisms have been fabricated at scale using MEMS technology, and have been shown capable of untethered locomotion at speeds exceeding 1.5 mm/sec. The corresponding speed, scaled to a car-sized robot would be over 100 km/hr. The possibility of autonomous (untethered) microactuators and microrobots less than 80 μm in length opens the door to novel applications in distributed and parallel robotics.
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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Donald, B.R., Levey, C.G., McGray, C.D., Rus, D., Sinclair, M. (2005). Untethered Micro-Actuators for Autonomous Micro-robot Locomotion: Design, Fabrication, Control, and Performance. In: Dario, P., Chatila, R. (eds) Robotics Research. The Eleventh International Symposium. Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol 15. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11008941_54
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11008941_54
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-23214-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31508-7
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