This article is cited in 23 papers

An Amphibious Vibration-driven Microrobot with a Piezoelectric Actuator

Felix Becker^a, Klaus Zimmermann^a, Tatiana Volkova^b, Vladimir T. Minchenya<sup>c

a</sup> Ilmenau University of Technology, Ilmenau, Germany
^b Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
^c Belarusian National Technical University, Minsk, Belarus

Abstract: This article concerns microrobots for solid and liquid environments. A short overview of microrobotics, suitable actuators and energy systems is given. The principles of terrestrial and aquatic locomotion are discussed and illustrated with examples from the literature on robotics. The state of the art with a focus on piezo microrobots for solid and liquid environments is presented.
Furthermore, we report an amphibious prototype, which can move on flat solid ground and on the free surface of water. The design, characteristic parameters and experiments on locomotion are described. The robot is characterized by a light and simple design and can perform twodimensional locomotion in different environments with a speed up to 30 mm/s. An analytical model to predict the maximum carrying capacity of the robot on water is solved numerically.

Keywords: microrobot, piezo actuator, amphibious system, resonant vibration, locomotion.

MSC: 70B15, 76-05, 74-05

Received: 07.10.2012
Accepted: 31.01.2013

Language: English

DOI: 10.1134/S1560354713010048

Bibliographic databases:

• 
•