ENABLING HARDWARE TECHNOLOGIES FOR AUTONOMY IN TINY ROBOTS: CONTROL, INTEGRATION, ACTUATION

The last two decades have seen many exciting examples of tiny robots from a few cm3 to less than one cm3. Although individually limited, a large group of these robots has the potential to work cooperatively and accomplish complex tasks. Two examples from nature that exhibit this type of cooperation are ant and bee colonies. They have the potential to assist in applications like search and rescue, military scouting, infrastructure and equipment monitoring, nano-manufacture, and possibly medicine. Most of these applications require the high level of autonomy that has been demonstrated by large robotic platforms, such as the iRobot and Honda ASIMO. However, when robot size shrinks down, current approaches to achieve the necessary functions are no longer valid. This work focused on challenges associated with the electronics and fabrication. We addressed three major technical hurdles inherent to current approaches: 1) difficulty of compact integration; 2) need for real-time and power-efficient computations; 3) unavailability of commercial tiny actuators and motion mechanisms. The aim of this work was to provide enabling hardware technologies to achieve autonomy in tiny robots. We proposed a decentralized application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) where each component is responsible for its own operation and autonomy to the greatest extent possible. The ASIC consists of electronics modules for the fundamental functions required to fulfill the desired autonomy: actuation, control, power supply, and sensing. The actuators and mechanisms could potentially be post-fabricated on the ASIC directly. This design makes for a modular architecture. The following components were shown to work in physical implementations or simulations: 1) a tunable motion controller for ultralow frequency actuation; 2) a nonvolatile memory and programming circuit to achieve automatic and one-time programming; 3) a high-voltage circuit with the highest reported breakdown voltage in standard 0.5 μm CMOS; 4) thermal actuators fabricated using CMOS compatible process; 5) a low-power mixed-signal computational architecture for robotic dynamics simulator; 6) a frequency-boost technique to achieve low jitter in ring oscillators. These contributions will be generally enabling for other systems with strict size and power constraints such as wireless sensor nodes

Análise cinemática e planificação de movimentos de um robô endoscópico accionado electromagneticamente

Nos últimos anos, o desenvolvimento e aperfeiçoamento dos dispositivos endoscópicos, capazes de observar o intestino humano na totalidade têm sido alvo de grande progresso. Estes ocorreram no domínio da miniaturização, da autonomia, do sistema de iluminação e da captação de imagens. O dispositivo mais recente é a cápsula endoscópica, apresenta baixa autonomia, ausência de sistemas de remoção e falta de materiais para biópsia ou tratamento de regiões tecidulares afectadas. Contudo, os investigadores têm trabalhado no desenvolvimento de sistemas robotizados que diminuam o desconforto e os perigos que advêm do uso do endoscópio convencional, assim como de todas as lacunas da cápsula endoscópica. Por isso, o Dr. David de la Fuente Diez projectou um robô endoscópico hiper-redundante de reduzidas dimensões que se move suavemente ao longo de todo o tubo digestivo. Este robô apresenta um sistema de fixação às paredes do lúmen intestinal, que possibilita a monitorização, a biópsia e o tratamento de regiões tecidulares. Como o robô se encontra em fase de desenvolvimento, neste trabalho realiza-se o estudo e a planificação de movimentos do robô endoscópico hiper-redundante, mantendo um dos seus extremos fixo. Para tal, determina-se o modo de locomoção do robô, usando a cinemática directa e inversa, de modo a conhecer a localização espacial e o comportamento dos seus elementos, descrevendo movimentos com baixo custo energético e elevada suavidade. Os algoritmos utilizados para a análise cinemática foram métodos heurísticos realizados através do software de computação numérica MATLAB. In the last few years, the development and perfecting of endoscopic devices, which are capable of observing the human intestine in its entirety, have greatly progressed. This progress has taken place in what concerns miniaturization, autonomy, illumination system and image capture. The latest device is the endoscopic capsule, with a low autonomy, no removal systems and no materials for the biopsy or treatment of afflicted tissue areas. Researchers have, however, been working in developing robot systems that lessen the discomfort and reduce the risks of using a conventional endoscope, as well as the shortcomings of endoscopic capsules. As such, Dr David de la Fuente Diez has designed a hyper-redundant endoscopic robot of small dimension which moves smoothly along all of the digestive tract. This robot possesses a system which allows it to hold on to the walls of the intestinal lumen, enabling the monitoring, biopsy and treatment of tissue areas. As the robot is still being developed, this essay studies and plans the movements of the hyper-redundant endoscopic robot, while keeping a fixed extremity. For this purpose, the robot’s mode of locomotion is determined by using direct and inverse kinematic so as to determine the spatial location and behaviour of its elements, performing highly smooth movements at a low energy cost. The algorithms used for kinematic analysis were heuristic methods performed by numerical computation software MATLAB

Mechatronic Systems

Mechatronics, the synergistic blend of mechanics, electronics, and computer science, has evolved over the past twenty five years, leading to a novel stage of engineering design. By integrating the best design practices with the most advanced technologies, mechatronics aims at realizing high-quality products, guaranteeing at the same time a substantial reduction of time and costs of manufacturing. Mechatronic systems are manifold and range from machine components, motion generators, and power producing machines to more complex devices, such as robotic systems and transportation vehicles. With its twenty chapters, which collect contributions from many researchers worldwide, this book provides an excellent survey of recent work in the field of mechatronics with applications in various fields, like robotics, medical and assistive technology, human-machine interaction, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing, and education. We would like to thank all the authors who have invested a great deal of time to write such interesting chapters, which we are sure will be valuable to the readers. Chapters 1 to 6 deal with applications of mechatronics for the development of robotic systems. Medical and assistive technologies and human-machine interaction systems are the topic of chapters 7 to 13.Chapters 14 and 15 concern mechatronic systems for autonomous vehicles. Chapters 16-19 deal with mechatronics in manufacturing contexts. Chapter 20 concludes the book, describing a method for the installation of mechatronics education in schools

An analysis of the locomotory behaviour and functional morphology of errant polychaetes

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Concept, modeling and experimental characterization of the modulated friction inertial drive (MFID) locomotion principle:application to mobile microrobots

A mobile microrobot is defined as a robot with a size ranging from 1 in3 down to 100 µm3 and a motion range of at least several times the robot's length. Mobile microrobots have a great potential for a wide range of mid-term and long-term applications such as minimally invasive surgery, inspection, surveillance, monitoring and interaction with the microscale world. A systematic study of the state of the art of locomotion for mobile microrobots shows that there is a need for efficient locomotion solutions for mobile microrobots featuring several degrees of freedom (DOF). This thesis proposes and studies a new locomotion concept based on stepping motion considering a decoupling of the two essential functions of a locomotion principle: slip generation and slip variation. The proposed "Modulated Friction Inertial Drive" (MFID) principle is defined as a stepping locomotion principle in which slip is generated by the inertial effect of a symmetric, axial vibration, while the slip variation is obtained from an active modulation of the friction force. The decoupling of slip generation and slip variation also has lead to the introduction of the concept of a combination of on-board and off-board actuation. This concept allows for an optimal trade-off between robot simplicity and power consumption on the one hand and on-board motion control on the other hand. The stepping motion of a MFID actuator is studied in detail by means of simulation of a numeric model and experimental characterization of a linear MFID actuator. The experimental setup is driven by piezoelectric actuators that vibrate in axial direction in order to generate slip and in perpendicular direction in order to vary the contact force. After identification of the friction parameters a good match between simulation and experimental results is achieved. MFID motion velocity has shown to depend sinusoidally on the phase shift between axial and perpendicular vibration. Motion velocity also increases linearly with increasing vibration amplitudes and driving frequency. Two parameters characterizing the MFID stepping behavior have been introduced. The step efficiency ηstep expresses the efficiency with which the actuator is capable of transforming the axial vibration in net motion. The force ratio qF evaluates the ease with which slip is generated by comparing the maximum inertial force in axial direction to the minimum friction force. The suitability of the MFID principle for mobile microrobot locomotion has been demonstrated by the development and characterization of three locomotion modules with between 2 and 3 DOF. The microrobot prototypes are driven by piezoelectric and electrostatic comb drive actuators and feature a characteristic body length between 20 mm and 10 mm. Characterization results include fast locomotion velocities up to 3 mm/s for typical driving voltages of some tens of volts and driving frequencies ranging from some tens of Hz up to some kHz. Moreover, motion resolutions in the nanometer range and very low power consumption of some tens of µW have been demonstrated. The advantage of the concept of a combination of on-board and off-board actuation has been demonstrated by the on-board simplicity of two of the three prototypes. The prototypes have also demonstrated the major advantage of the MFID principle: resonance operation has shown to reduce the power consumption, reduce the driving voltage and allow for simple driving electronics. Finally, with the fabrication of 2 × 2 mm2 locomotion modules with 2 DOF, a first step towards the development of mm-sized mobile microrobots with on-board motion control is made

Advances in Vibration Analysis Research

Vibrations are extremely important in all areas of human activities, for all sciences, technologies and industrial applications. Sometimes these Vibrations are useful but other times they are undesirable. In any case, understanding and analysis of vibrations are crucial. This book reports on the state of the art research and development findings on this very broad matter through 22 original and innovative research studies exhibiting various investigation directions. The present book is a result of contributions of experts from international scientific community working in different aspects of vibration analysis. The text is addressed not only to researchers, but also to professional engineers, students and other experts in a variety of disciplines, both academic and industrial seeking to gain a better understanding of what has been done in the field recently, and what kind of open problems are in this area

Revista de ştiinţe ale sănătăţii din Moldova = Moldovan journal of health sciences. 2016, Vol. 7(1)

Fondator: Instituţia Publică Universitatea de Stat de Medicină şi Farmacie „Nicolae Testemiţanu” din Republica MoldovaRevista de Științe ale Sănătății din Moldova (Moldovan Journal of Health Sciences) a fost lansată în octombrie 2014. Aceasta este editată în limbile română și engleză, conform standardelor și ghidurilor internaționale actuale în domeniul științelor medicale, și are o apariție trimestrială. Revista este înregistrată în Instrumentul Bibliometric Național IBN/IDSI (nr.1 din 16.11.2015), iar din 21 decembrie 2017, prin Hotărârea Consiliului Suprem pentru Știință și Dezvoltare Tehnologică nr. 169, a fost inclusă în lista revistelor științifice de Tip B. Revista este înregistrată în 2 baze de date internaționale