Propulsion method for swimming microrobots

doi:10.1109/TRO.2006.889485

Propulsion method for swimming microrobots

2007-02-01

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DOI：10.1109/TRO.2006.889485

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Abstract

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This paper presents a novel swimming method mediated by traveling waves in elastic tails. The propulsion method is potentially appropriate for maneuvering microrobots; inside the human body. The swimming action relies on the creation of a traveling wave along a piezoelectric layered beam divided into several segments. This requires that a voltage with the same frequency, but different phases and amplitudes, be applied to each segment. The swimming pattern was analyzed theoretically by solving the coupled electric-elastic-fluidic problem, and was optimized to attain reasonable thrust. It was found that despite extreme size limitations, a tail manufactured by current microelectromechanical-devices technology, using piezoelectric material, is able to swim in water at a speed of several centimeters per second. The swimming theory was verified experimentally using an upscaled model that produced propulsion of 0.04 mN, which matches closely the theoretically predicted propulsion.

Keywords:

microactuators

microelectromechanical devices (MEMs)

microrobots

swimming robot

Propulsion method for swimming microrobots

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