Abstract
This paper presents a study of motion of an artificial flagellum microrobot in a viscous environment in COMSOL Multiphysics. The microrobot is essentially a body, consisting of a piezoelectric layered beam divided into several segments. Its actuation for propulsion relies on the creation of a non-reciprocal motion along the body. This requires that a voltage with the same frequency but different phases and amplitudes be applied to each segment. The motion pattern is analyzed theoretically and a control strategy in open loop is implemented to emulate a non-reciprocal motion. Simulations are given to demonstrate that a non-reciprocal motion is developed. Likewise, its propulsion can be verified from the drag force observed. Despite extreme size limitations using piezoelectric materials, the design proposed in this work may be able to swim in blood flow.
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Acknowledgments
This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the project DPI2016-80547-R and the FEDER Funds (Programa Operativo FEDER de Extremadura 2014–2020) through the grant “Ayuda a Grupos de Investigación” (ref. GR15178) of the Junta de Extremadura.
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Mancha, E., Traver, J.E., Tejado, I., Prieto, J., Vinagre, B.M., Feliu, V. (2018). Artificial Flagellum Microrobot. Design and Simulation in COMSOL. In: Ollero, A., Sanfeliu, A., Montano, L., Lau, N., Cardeira, C. (eds) ROBOT 2017: Third Iberian Robotics Conference. ROBOT 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 693. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70833-1_40
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70833-1_40
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