Design and Fabrication of a Control Setup for a Miniature Mobile Robot Excited by Magnetic Field

Abstract

This paper presents a magnetic miniature rolling robot which is capable to traverse in dry environments. The robot is fabricated using 3d print technology, and a neodymium magnet is embedded inside the robot in order to actuate it by external magnetic field. Because of the robot's shape, the actuation method should be in form of torques; therefore, the Helmholtz configuration which creates a uniform magnetic field is used. To create a magnetic field in the desired direction, currents of electromagnetic coils should be adjusted. To this aim, first, the behavior of the robot in response to magnetic field is analyzed; then, an algorithm is developed to control the position of the robot on the two-dimensional plate. Finally, the introduced controller is applied to an experimental setup. The results show the acceptable performance of the control system.