Design, Analytical Modeling, and Simulation of Wire-Free Walking Scratch-Drive Microrobot

This paper describes the design, modeling, and simulation of a prototype wire-free walking scratch-drive microrobot with the dimensions of 365 mum x 78 mum . The microrobot consists of three scratch-drive actuators and two steering arms. The motion is controlled by delivering power via a capacitive coupling, with an underlying electric grid, to the microrobot. This way, the microrobot can move freely without connected wire for power supply. A globally controllable system is provided by a finite-state machine. The behavior of this microrobot using novel accurate analytical methods and the finite-element method simulation has been investigated. An automatic release mechanism is provided for mass production.