The goal of this research is to create a flexible, micro-scale additive manufacturing platform utilizing a team of untethered micro-scale robots and modular, multifunctional building blocks to create smart micro-devices and structures. Externally applied magnetic fields are commonly used for the power and actuation of individual magnetic mobile microrobots. However, in order to achieve different behaviors from individual robots within a team of microrobots, there must be either significant variation in their design or in the magnetic control signals applied to each microrobot.
The intellectual merit of this research, therefore, lies in the novel approach to create a specialized magnetic potential field generating substrate from MEMS-fabricated planar microcoils and the related control methodology to enable truly independent control of multiple mobile microrobots. Thus, the research objectives of the proposal are: the design and fabrication of the micro-coils and related control electronics; motion control for mobile magnetic microrobot swarms; and magnetic microrobot and modular component design and fabrication, based on specialized micro-components with various material properties and functions.
Successful completion of the objectives will result in a transformative mobile microrobot swarm platform capable of executing various advanced additive manufacturing tasks. Potential applications include very high-density energy storage, high strain actuation, energy harvesting, very low power communications devices, and composite structures with integrated sensors. Further broader impacts of this project reside in disseminating the research output in industry and academia along with an educational agenda spanning related outreach activities from the K-12 through graduate levels.
