Modeling and Control of Magnetic Forces between Microrobots

TL;DR

This paper presents a cascade control method for independently regulating the distance between two microrobots using a shared magnetic field, enhancing precision and speed for biomedical applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel cascade control approach that improves the regulation of microrobot distances with only a global magnetic field parameter, enabling more precise control in biomedical microrobotics.

Findings

PID control reduced convergence time by 40%.

Combined PID+PD controllers achieved smooth angular trajectories.

Control method is effective in 2D with two agents, suitable for real-world applications.

Abstract

The independent control of multiple magnetic microrobots under a shared global signal presents critical challenges in biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery and microsurgeries. Most existing systems only allow all agents to move synchronously, limiting their use in applications that require differentiated actuation. This research aims to design a controller capable of regulating the radial distance between micro-agents using only the angle \psi of a global magnetic field as the actuation parameter, demonstrating potential for practical applications. The proposed cascade control approach enables faster and more precise adjustment of the inter-agent distance than a proportional controller, while maintaining smooth transitions and avoiding abrupt changes in the orientation of the magnetic field, making it suitable for real-world implementation. A bibliographic review was conducted to develop the physical model, considering magnetic dipole-dipole interactions and velocities in viscous media. A PID controller was implemented to regulate the radial distance, followed by a PD controller in cascade to smooth changes in field orientation. These controllers were simulated in MATLAB, showing that the PID controller reduced convergence time to the desired radius by about 40%. When adding the second controller, the combined PID+PD scheme achieved smooth angular trajectories within similar timeframes, with fluctuations of only \pm 5^\circ. These results validate the feasibility of controlling the radial distance of two microrobots using a shared magnetic field in a fast and precise manner, without abrupt variations in the control angle. However, the model is limited to a 2D environment and two agents, suggesting future research to extend the controller to 3D systems and multiple agents.