On the Forward and Backward Motion of Milli-Bristle-Bots
This enables precise control of tiny robots for applications like micro-manipulation or medical devices, though it is incremental as it builds on existing bristle-bot research.
This work tackled the problem of achieving bidirectional motion in millimeter-scale bristle robots by developing a dry-friction model to predict motion frequency regions and fabricating robots with different bristle tilt angles to experimentally validate the theory, resulting in the first demonstration of such bidirectional motion at this scale with a single on-board actuator.
This works presents the theoretical analysis and experimental observations of bidirectional motion of a millimeter-scale bristle robot (milli-bristle-bot) with an on-board piezoelectric actuator. First, the theory of the motion, based on the dry-friction model, is developed and the frequency regions of the forward and backward motion, along with resonant frequencies of the system are predicted. Secondly, milli-bristle-bots with two different bristle tilt angles are fabricated, and their bidirectional motions are experimentally investigated. The dependency of the robot speed on the actuation frequency is studied,which reveals two distinct frequency regions for the forward and backward motions that well matches our theoretical predictions. Furthermore, the dependencies of the resonance frequency and robot speed on the bristle tilt angle are experimentally studied and tied to the theoretical model. This work marks the first demonstration of bidirectional motion at millimeter-scales, achieved for bristle-bots with a single on-board actuator.