Elucidation of propulsive force of microrobot using magnetic fluid

Abstract

Using the pattern of the peristaltic movement of an earthworm, a microrobot was developed for traveling in a tube using a magnetic fluid. In this microrobot, a cell equivalent to a segment of the earthworm is composed of a natural rubber tube into which a water-based magnetic fluid is sealed up. The cells are connected with rod-like elastic bodies of natural rubber. It was confirmed that this robot can travel in an acrylic tube ͑inner diameter: 12 mm, outer diameter: 14 mm͒ by providing a shifting magnetic field from the exterior. This article will describe how our microrobot is propelled, the mechanism of its propulsion, and the analytical results of the propulsive force.

Development of peristaltic crawling robot which imitates muscle structure of an earthworm

“…蠕動運動型ロボット開発の現状 これまで，蠕動運動を行うロボットの駆動方式として，空気圧を利用した人工筋アクチュエータ (Saga and Nakamura, 2004), (嵯峨他，2005), (則次，久保田，2000), 磁性流体 (Saga and Nakamura, 2002)，形状記憶合金 (Kim et al, 2006), (篠原他, 1999), (高橋他，1995), (Seok et al, 2013)，モータ (Omori et al, 2008 …”

Acquisition of earthworm-like movement patterns of many-segmented peristaltic crawling robots

“…The value function is updated according to an original policy. 7 General reinforcement learning is intended to demand the most suitable policy, but Q-learning is intended to yield the most suitable value function Q (Q value). The Q-learning algorithm is presented in Table 1.…”

“…We devoted attention to this mechanism from early stages and developed various robots. 7,8 Earthworms have slim bodies with numerous segments connected in succession. The body interior is surrounded by bilaminar muscles of longitudinal muscles along the length of the body and ring-like muscles around the diameter.…”

“…Peristaltic crawling robot drive methods include the use of various technologies: vacuum pressure and pneumatic pressure, [11][12][13][14] magnetic fluid, 7 and shape-memory alloy. 15,16 The peristaltic crawling robots that we intend to produce are designed for activity in disaster areas.…”

Self-localization and 3-D model construction of pipe by earthworm robot equipped with omni-directional rangefinder

“…A lot of pipe inspection robots are proposed as mentioned above. Especially, the robot that imitates the earthworm is actively developed [18], [19]. The earthworm type robot is suitable for movement in the piping, because the ground contact area with piping is large.…”