Design and prototyping of a magnetic actuator based permanent magnets for microbead navigation in viscous environment

International audienceFor actuating the magnetic microrobots, two types of magnetic actuation technologies have been used during the last past years. These magnetic technologies may be either electromagnetic coils or permanent magnets based systems. This second solution is not the most used by researchers, because of the difficulties to control the magnetic force. In this paper we propose a magnetic actuator prototype based on permanent magnets. In addition to the magnets, the actuator is also composed of a mechanical structure. This structure is used for positioning the permanent magnets, which allows to control the magnetic force generated by the actuator. We demonstrated in simulation and experimentally confirmed the ability of this actuator to generate both pushing and pulling forces