Development of a permanent magnet type micro-robot actuated by external electromagnetic system

Abstract

A novel and simple electromagnetic actuation (EMA) system having a permanent magnet (PM) type micro-robot and external coil pairs is proposed. The micro-robot is composed of PM and the newly proposed EMA system consists of only two coil pairs arranged along x- and y-axis, respectively, allowing different current intensity into each coil to derive torque and thrust force on the horizontal plane. Magnetic fields generated by the EMA system are analyzed through the finite element analysis and numerical results are compared with the theoretical analysis to verify the feasibility of the proposed system. A prototype system is manufactured and its performance is verified by comparison of magnetic flux values.