Three-DOF Microrobotic Platform Based on Capillary Actuation

Abstract

This paper presents a new microrobotic platform actuated by capillary effects, combining surface tension and pressure effects. The device has 6 degrees of freedom (DOFs), among which, three are actuated: the z-axis translation having a stroke of a few hundreds of microns and θ <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</i> and θ <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">y</i> tilting up to about 15 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> . The platform is submerged in a liquid and placed on microbubbles whose shapes (e.g., height) are driven by fluidic parameters (pressure and volume). The modeling of this new type of compliant robot is described and compared with experimental measurements. This paper paves the way for an interesting actuation and robotic solution for submerged devices on the microscale.