Locomotion mechanism and control method for a microrobot using the difference in the vibration characteristics of the legs (fabrication of a prototype microrobot; preliminary experiments and experiments in turning control)

Abstract

Recently, microrobots have been the subject of a large number of studies, and contests are held throughout the year with the aim of developing microrobot technologies. As a result, various types of microrobots have been proposed including motor-type, piezoelectric-element-type, and electromagnet-type microrobots. This study considers a novel locomotion mechanism and a control method for an electromagnet-type microrobot that can not only travel in a straight line, but can also turn using just a single electromagnet that utilizes the difference in the vibration characteristics of the left and right legs. In this study, a control method to change the turning radius is proposed, and a prototype microrobot and controller are fabricated. In addition, the characteristics of the turning radius are investigated and the effectiveness of the proposed control method is verified through experiments.