Purdue University scientists successfully control micro-bots using mini magnetic force fields
To this effect, the Purdue researchers came up with a system of magnetic fields whose range of action covers the robots’ “workspace”.
A team of engineers at Purdue University have found a technique to control individual robots operating in a group using “mini force fields”. This is critical to the process because microbots are too small to be powered by batteries.
“To address the issue, the Purdue team developed a system of magnetic fields generated by an array of tiny planar coils in the robots” “workspace”.
Magnetic fields system is not only being used to control mini-bots, but also to power them.
So, why the tiny bots in the first place? These super robots are each of the sizes of a dust mite and with this new technology, will be able to perform the most complex tasks requiring cooperative behavior easily says David Cappelleri, mechanical engineering professor and head of the research team. When they are lifting food or moving it towards the colony, they work independently, but show cooperative behavior.
This type of technology was attempted before, but researchers were able to only move groups of similar microbots without a specific target or goal. The microbot models used in the study are magnetic disks about 2 mm in diameter – about twice the size of a pinhead. Instead of planting the coils around the perimeter of the microbots and creating a globalized field, the planar coils are printed directly onto the substrate- creating a localized field.
The complete details of the research have been published this month in the journal Micromachines. According to Discovery News reports, if these applications become practically viable, they can be successfully used in production as well as in medicine such as using the mini-bots to diagnose cancer through biopsies and more.
“You can think about using teams of robots to assemble components on a small scale, which we could use for microscale additive manufacturing”, Cappelleri said.
Microbots controlled Independently but working in groups might help us one day in areas like medicine or even manufacturing.
“So far people have been good at making MEMS devices containing different components”, he said. We can instead assemble them with our robots.
“Cancer cells have different stiffness characteristics than non-cancer cells, and in some of our previous work we put force sensors on the end of these robots to figure out which ones are stiffer than others”, Cappelleri said. To do so, they built miniature remote controls made of planar coils.