On the Force Capabilities of Centripetal Force-actuated Microrobotic Platforms

—This paper studies the capabilities of a microrobotic platform, driven by vibrating motors, to generate and impart micromanipulation forces of desired type and magnitude. First, an analysis is carried out on the nature of the actuation forces of the motion mechanism of the platform. The results demonstrate that the oscillating nature of these forces does not allow their direct use for micromanipulations. Consequently, further analysis is conducted to identify the conditions, under which the platform’s actuation forces can be exploited for micromanipulations. To this end, a dynamic model of a single-dimensional pushing operation is developed, comprising the dynamics of the platform, the manipulator and the object. It is demonstrated by simulation that the forces imparted on the manipulated object depend on the physical parameters of the platform-manipulator system. Accordingly, a set of nonlinear equations involving platform-manipulator system parameters, is formulated that describ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: P. Vartholomeos, Kostas Vlachos, Evangelos Papadopoulos
• Keywords: Actuation Forces, ICRA 2007, Micromanipulation Forces, Microrobotic Platform, Robotics