Wireless resonant magnetic microactuators.

Abstract

Rapid advances in miniaturization and robotics are presenting new opportunities for collaboration between the elds of robotics and medicine. Since their development in the late 1990s, minimally invasive robotic systems have become an accepted partner in the surgical suite. This trend has continued with the development of noninvasive camera pills for GI tract inspection. Further miniaturization and development of noninvasive microrobotic platforms and procedures will occur in the near future. This thesis contributes to the development of viable medical microrobots with the presentation of new wireless micromotors capable of providing power and propulsion to sub-millimeter wireless robotic platforms. The wireless resonant actuator can be individually actuated by frequency-dependent power, which is delivered by oscillating external magnetic elds. By relying on magnetic forces between neighboring soft magnetic bodies, a high-power, individually addressable, scalable wireless microactuator was created. Utilizing the energy amplification of impact, impact forces as high as 300 microN have been demonstrated. The actuator is used to provide power, propulsion and control to a 300x300x70 micron3 microrobotic platform that can be driven with a full three degrees of freedom and can manipulate objects on a flat substrate in both air and liquid environments. An undergraduate student team using the microrobotic.