MicrorobotTechnologies.PDFVIP

Towards a 3g Crawling Robot through the Integration of Microrobot Technologies* Ranjana Sahai, Srinath Avadhanula, Richard Groff, Erik Steltz, Robert Wood, and Ronald S. Fearing Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720 USA rsahai@eecs.berkeley.edu or ronf@eecs.berkeley.edu Abstract - This paper discusses the biomimetic design and We discuss the design and assembly of this device, provide assembly of a 3g self-contained crawling robot fabricated brief descriptions of the various integrated technologies, and, through the integrated use of various microrobot technologies. finally, give our results and conclusions from following this The hexapod structure is designed to move in an alternating process. tripod gait driven by two piezoelectric actuators connected by sliding plates to two sets of three legs. We present results of both II. ROBOT DESIGN the kinematic and static analyses of the driving mechanism that essentially consists of three slider cranks in series. This analysis A. Background confirmed the force differential needed to propel the device. We The development of a robot with legs as opposed to then review various other microrobot technologies that have been wheels (nature’s solution for adapting to various types of developed including actuator design and fabrication, power and terrain) has been investigated as far back as 1940. Reference control electronics design, programming via a finite state [3] provides a review of some of these various designs over machine, and the development of bioinspired fiber arrays. These the years. Some other designs of particular note from the technologies were then successfully integrated into the device. point