A mobile micro-robot using centrifugal forces

This paper deals with a new mobile micro-robot using centrifugal force. Though Many kinds of mobile micro-robots using PZT elements have been developed, their elements generally require some kinds of high voltage amplifiers accompanied with electric cable lines, which make the micro robot difficult to move around freely in a long and thin pipe. The micro-robot proposed here consists of many brush fibers, two coreless motors and a button electric cell. These coreless motors with eccentric weights generate centrifugal forces which transmit to the elastic brush fibers, and consequently produce driving forces of the micro-robot. First, I derive a translational moving model of the mobile micro-robot using centrifugal forces. Next, some simple prototypes of this robot are developed, and the characteristics of their high velocity are examined by experiment. And then, the rotational property of the micro-robot that produced by the angular velocities of the two coreless motors is discussed by a yawing model. Finally, I verify the validity of the proposed mathematical model by comparing simulation results with experimental results