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Applied Sciences
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Micro-Robotics
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Micro-Robotics

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Mechanical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2021) | Viewed by 10485

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Irene Fassi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council (STIIMA-CNR), 13900 Bari, Italy
Interests: micro manufacturing; micro robotics; micro assembly; micro EDM; micro injection molding
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Serena Ruggeri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council, 20133 Milan, Italy
Interests: micro-manipulation; micro-assembly; micro-robotics; robotics; mechatronics; industrial automation; design engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last few decades, the potential of micro-robotics has been demonstrated, enabling a number of developments in different industrial and biomedical domains. From high-precision small-scale robots, to smart micro-gripping tools and their cutting-edge applications, micro-robotics is gaining maturity although many challenges still have to be overcome in terms of reliability, throughput, and autonomy, for example. They therefore require a common effort to make micro-robotics play a significant role in the future. Micro-scale effects have to be further explored to improve the predictability of micro-robot behavior and its controllability. Innovative approaches for the design, fabrication, and deployment of intelligent micro-robotic systems have to be investigated to pave the way for frontier applications. This Special Issue aims to collect research papers, reviews, and shorter communications addressing recent advances in high-precision micro-robotics, including (but not limited to): micro-robot design, manufacturing and experimental validation, sensing and actuation methods, micro-manipulation and assembly tools, control strategies, performance assessment.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. Irene Fassi
Dr. Serena Ruggeri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • High-precision micro-robots (design, development, test)
  • Influence of surface and friction forces at the micro-scale
  • Sensing and actuation for micro-robotics
  • Micro-manipulation tools
  • Micro-assembly and micro-disassembly
  • Performance assessment
  • Advanced control methods
  • Communication and in-line monitoring
  • Innovative applications for Industry 4.0

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 4248 KiB  
Article
Trajectory and Conveyance Validation of a Micro Conveyor Based on a Digital Electromagnetic Actuators Array for the Micro-Factory
by Simon Duque Tisnes, Atif Tasneem, Laurent Petit and Christine Prelle
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(24), 11980; https://doi.org/10.3390/app112411980 - 16 Dec 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1655
Abstract
Micro-factories are characterized by high modularity, reconfigurability and mobility. To achieve this, the micro-factory needs a conveyor which is able to transport objects in as many degrees of freedom (DoF) as possible, executes optimal trajectories of these objects in terms of energy and [...] Read more.
Micro-factories are characterized by high modularity, reconfigurability and mobility. To achieve this, the micro-factory needs a conveyor which is able to transport objects in as many degrees of freedom (DoF) as possible, executes optimal trajectories of these objects in terms of energy and precision and is robust to withstand possible malfunctions. In this article, we present the planar conveyance of objects on a digital actuation array following trajectories generated by an adapted A* algorithm. The A* algorithm exploits the predictions of a developed dynamic model of the system to find the optimal paths (in terms of energy) on the conveyor surface. The dynamic model predictions were compared to experimental measurements, obtaining low root-mean-square-errors for all conditions. Uni-dimensional conveyance tests characterized the influence of the control parameters. Then, bi-dimensional motions characterized the conveyor’s performance. From the bi-dimensional test, a position root-mean-square-error of 20 μm was measured for a 1109 μm open-loop controlled trajectory. The modular nature of the array allows easy scaling and avoiding possible malfunctioning zones, increasing the robustness of the micro-conveyor. The experimental tests demonstrate that the proposed device is an interesting alternative for the micro-factory. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Robotics)
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14 pages, 8103 KiB  
Article
Impact-Based Amplification and Frequency Down-Conversion of Piezoelectric Actuation for Small Robotics
by Congkai Shen, Siyuan Yu, Junjie Luo and Kenn R. Oldham
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(14), 6276; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11146276 - 07 Jul 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1888
Abstract
This paper explores a concept for dynamic amplification of piezoelectric actuator motion using repeated impacts between the active transducer and a compliant amplification mechanism. The design shows good performance in amplifying vibration of a lead–zirconate–titanate (PZT) bimorph while down-converting the output frequency of [...] Read more.
This paper explores a concept for dynamic amplification of piezoelectric actuator motion using repeated impacts between the active transducer and a compliant amplification mechanism. The design shows good performance in amplifying vibration of a lead–zirconate–titanate (PZT) bimorph while down-converting the output frequency of motion from more than 150 Hz to less than 20 Hz. A simple dynamic model is used to identify the conceptual opportunities for impact-based amplification of PZT displacement. Experimental results are gathered from a prototype system with dimensions 55 mm × 22 mm × 1 mm. PZT displacement is amplified by a factor of more than 100 with near-periodic output oscillations at select input frequencies. Implications for leveraging the low-frequency output oscillations in small mobile robots are briefly discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Robotics)
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12 pages, 26919 KiB  
Article
Crawling Magnetic Robot to Perform a Biopsy in Tubular Environments by Controlling a Magnetic Field
by Eunsoo Jung, Jaekwang Nam, Wonseo Lee, Jongyul Kim and Gunhee Jang
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(11), 5292; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11115292 - 07 Jun 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2813
Abstract
We developed a crawling magnetic robot (CMR), which can stably navigate and perform biopsies remotely in tubular environments by controlling a magnetic field. The CMR is composed of a crawling part and a biopsy part. The crawling part allows the CMR to crawl [...] Read more.
We developed a crawling magnetic robot (CMR), which can stably navigate and perform biopsies remotely in tubular environments by controlling a magnetic field. The CMR is composed of a crawling part and a biopsy part. The crawling part allows the CMR to crawl forward and backward via an asymmetric friction force generated by an external precessional magnetic field. The biopsy part closes or opens the cover of a needle to use the biopsy needle selectively with the control of the external precessional magnetic field. The cover of the biopsy part prevents damage to the tubular environments because the biopsy needle is inside the cover while the CMR is navigating. We developed the design of the proposed CMR using magnetic torque constraints and a magnetic force constraint, and then we fabricated the CMR with three-dimensional printing technology. Finally, we conducted an experiment to measure the CMR’s puncturing force with a load cell and conducted an experiment in a Y-shaped watery glass tube with pseudo-tissue to verify the crawling motion, the uncovering and covering motion of the biopsy needle, and the CMR’s ability to extract tissue with the biopsy needle. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Robotics)
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Review

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21 pages, 3193 KiB  
Review
Analysis and Comparison of Electromagnetic Microrobotic Platforms for Biomedical Applications
by Ruipeng Chen, David Folio and Antoine Ferreira
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(1), 456; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12010456 - 04 Jan 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2652
Abstract
Magnetic microrobotics is a promising technology for improving minimally invasive surgery (MIS) with the ambition of enhancing patient care and comfort. The potential benefits include limited incisions, less hemorrhaging and postoperative pain, and faster recovery time. To achieve this, a key issue relies [...] Read more.
Magnetic microrobotics is a promising technology for improving minimally invasive surgery (MIS) with the ambition of enhancing patient care and comfort. The potential benefits include limited incisions, less hemorrhaging and postoperative pain, and faster recovery time. To achieve this, a key issue relies on the design of a proper electromagnetic actuation (EMA) setup which is based on the use of magnetic sources. The magnetic field and its gradient generated by the EMA platform is then used to induce magnetic torque and force for microrobot manipulations inside the human body. Like any control systems, the EMA system must be adapted to the given controlled microrobot and customized for the application. With great research efforts on magnetic manipulating of microrobots, the EMA systems are approaching commercial applications, and their configurations are becoming more suitable to be employed in real medical surgeries. However, most of the proposed designs have not followed any specific rule allowing to take into account the biomedical applications constraints. Through reviewing the different proposed EMA systems in the literature, their various specifications and configurations are comprehensively discussed and analyzed. This study focus on EMA platforms that use electromagnets. From this review and based on the biomedical application specifications, the appropriate EMA system can be determined efficiently. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Robotics)
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