Swarm Control of Magnetically Actuated Millirobots

TL;DR

This paper introduces a control algorithm for guiding a swarm of magnetically actuated millirobots to predefined positions using a single external magnetic input, with innovative robot designs to enhance control and movement modes.

Contribution

It presents a novel control algorithm for positioning a group of millirobots with different lengths using a single magnetic control input, along with two new robot designs for improved movement.

Findings

The control algorithm successfully positions multiple robots from initial to desired locations.

Hardware experiments validate the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

Different robot designs enable varied movement modes and improved control flexibility.

Abstract

Small-size robots offer access to spaces that are inaccessible to larger ones. This type of access is crucial in applications such as drug delivery, environmental detection, and collection of small samples. However, there are some tasks that are not possible to perform using only one robot including assembly and manufacturing at small scales, manipulation of micro- and nano- objects, and robot-based structuring of small-scale materials. The solution to this problem is to use a group of robots as a system. Thus, we focus on tasks that can be achieved using a group of small-scale robots. These robots are typically externally actuated due to their size limitation. Yet, one faces the challenge of controlling a group of robots using a single global input. We propose a control algorithm to position individual members of a swarm in predefined positions. A single control input applies to the system and moves all robots in the same direction. We also add another control modality by using different length robots. An electromagnetic coil system applied external force and steered the millirobots. This millirobot can move in various modes of motion such as pivot walking and tumbling. We propose two new designs of these millirobots. In the first design, the magnets are placed at the center of body to reduce the magnetic attraction force. In the second design, the millirobots are of identical length with two extra legs acting as the pivot points. This way we vary pivot separation in design to take advantage of variable speed in pivot walking mode while keeping the speed constant in tumbling mode. This paper presents a general algorithm for positional control of n millirobots with different lengths to move them from given initial positions to final desired ones. This method is based on choosing a leader that is fully controllable. Simulations and hardware experiments validate these results.