Design, Micro-Fabrication, and Characterization of a 3-DoF Micro-Conveyor Based on Digital Actuators

Abstract

In this paper, a novel optimal 3-DoF micro-conveyor based on electromagnetic digital actuators array is proposed. The micro-conveyor consists of four electromagnetic digital actuators. Two specific control strategies have been built to realize the 3-DoF planner conveyance task. A static analytical model and a dynamic semi-analytical model based on the principle have been built for the optimal design, analysis, and necessary calculation of a prototype. The prototype was manufactured by micro-fabrication technology and several experiments were carried out. The experimental results are in good agreement with the modeling results. Benefited from the optimal design and high fabrication precision, the proposed micro-conveyor is proved to be better in magnetic homogeneity of elementary actuators, output stability, long range conveyance linearity, and have one more DoF (planar rotation) compared to the previous work.