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Collective formation and cooperative function of a magnetic microrobotic swarm

2019

Conference Paper

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Untethered magnetically actuated microrobots can access distant, enclosed and small spaces, such as inside microfluidic channels and the human body, making them appealing for minimal invasive tasks. Despite the simplicity of individual magnetic microrobots, a collective of these microrobots that can work closely and cooperatively would significantly enhance their capabilities. However, a challenge of realizing such collective magnetic microrobots is to coordinate their formations and motions with underactuated control signals. Here, we report a method that allows collective magnetic microrobots working closely and cooperatively by controlling their two-dimensional (2D) formations and collective motions in a programmable manner. The actively designed formation and intrinsic adjustable compliance within the group allow bio-inspired collective behaviors, such as navigating through cluttered environments and reconfigurable cooperative manipulation ability. These collective magnetic microrobots thus could enable potential applications in programmable self-assembly, modular robotics, swarm robotics, and biomedicine.

Author(s): Xiaoguang Dong, Metin Sitti
Year: 2019
Month: June
Publisher: IEEE

Department(s): Physical Intelligence
Research Project(s): Collective formation and cooperative behavior of magnetic microrobot collectives
Bibtex Type: Conference Paper (conference)
Paper Type: Conference

DOI: 10.15607/RSS.2019.XV.007
Event Name: Robotics: Science and Systems
Event Place: Freiburg im Breisgau

Links: Collective Formation and Cooperative Function of a Magnetic Microrobotic Swarm

BibTex

@conference{Robotics:_Science_and_Systems_,
  title = {Collective formation and cooperative function of a magnetic microrobotic swarm},
  author = {Xiaoguang Dong, Metin Sitti},
  publisher = {IEEE},
  month = jun,
  year = {2019},
  doi = {10.15607/RSS.2019.XV.007},
  month_numeric = {6}
}