J. Brufau

MICRON: Small Autonomous Robot for Cell Manipulation Applications

Manipulating in the micro- or even nano world still poses a great challenge to robotics. Conventional (stationary) systems suffer from drawbacks regarding integration into process supervision and multi-robot approaches, which become highly relevant to fight scaling effects. This paper describes work currently being carried out which aims to make automated manipulation of micrometer-scaled objects possible by robots with nanometer precision. The goal is to establish a small cluster of (up to five) micro robots equipped with on-board electronics, sensors and wireless power supply. Power autonomy has been reached using inductive energy transmission from an external wireless power supply system or a battery based system. Electronics requirements are fulfilled in the electronic module with the full custom integrated circuit design for the robot locomotion control and the closed loop force control for AFM tool in cell manipulation applications. The maximum velocity obtained is about 0.4 mm/s with a saw tooth voltage signals of 20Vpp and 2500 Hz. In order to keep a AFM tool on micro-robot a specific tip with integrated piezoresistance, instead of the classical laser beam methodology, is validated for force measurement.

Novel autonomous low power VLSI system powered by ambient mechanical vibrations and solar cells for portable applications in a 0.13μ technology

Batteryless wireless sensors are increasing their usefulness, making them cheaper and maintenance free. A system powered using ambient vibration energy and solar cells are presented, looking for a system with enough energy and autonomy. The paper presents the integrated power conditioning circuit conception proposed to work with both power sources, which have been modeled. The simulation of the full system with the electrical models of the sources allows us to analyze the performance of the system. In terms of the expected energy consumption the main parameters of the design are obtained.

Manipulating biological cells with a micro-robot cluster

Micromanipulation is an appreciated and powerful method to modify biological material. By injecting DNA or specific liquids into a biological cell, designated reactions or behaviors can be provoked. The aim of this paper is to describe three components of a fully automated opticonsisting of a micro-robot cluster with an integrated micro-fluidic SyringeChip. The electronic system, microfluidic Syringe-Chip, and infrared communication are the components that have been built and are ready for integration into a MiCRoN robot. The concept of a biological cell manipulation with the aid of the integrated sub-systems is being presented here. The first injection experiment is done after completion of the MiCRoN robot-cluster.

Modeling IPMC Actuators for Model Reference Motion Control

Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) produce large bending motions under a low driving voltage and can be used in underwater applications. In this work, the control of ionic polymer metal composite actuators is investigated from a practical perspective. The control of IPMC is important in many processes and applications including underwater applications. This work develops an approach for model reference control of IPMCs. The main idea is to settle the behavior of IPMC adjustable from reference model. This strategy is demonstrated on an experimental rig using real time control. Experimental results confirm that a reference control of the IPMC is achievable.

Towards co-operative autonomous 1cm/sup 3/ robots for micro and nanomanipulation applications: MICRON

The micro and nanomanipulation is one of the main challenges in our days. One approach is based on the use of a limited cluster of microrobots working in a cooperative way. For the development of the activity each robot of the cluster has assigned a different task. This implies that each robot has a different specialization. Our objective is to present in this paper the design of the electronics developed for these robots, taking into account the important challenges regarding the available area, and that the robot should possess enough autonomy. The most versatile solution is pursued because a particular electronics is not to be developed for each specialized robot. In function of the robots specialty it will receive the necessary orders, being permeable the electronics to any case. In this paper is presented in a general way these different specializations.

An integrated controller for a flexible and wireless atomic force microscopy

Nowadays Atomic Force Microscopy is one of the most extended techniques performed in biological measurements. Due to the higher flexibility in respect to conventional equipments, a novel approach in this field is the use of a microrobot equipped with an AFM tool. In this paper it is presented an integrated controller for an AFM tool assembled in a 1 cm3 wireless microrobot. The AFM tool is mounted on the tip of a rotational piezoelectric actuator arm. It consists on a XYZ positioning scanner, based in 4 piezoelectric stacked actuators, and an AFM piezoresistance probe. Two types of AFM working modes are implemented in the controller, i.e., nanoidentation and AFM scanning. Correction of the mismatch of the piezoactuators composing the arm is possible. A programmable PID control is included in the controller in order to get more flexibility in terms of scanning speed and resolution. An IrDA protocol is used to program the parameters of the AFM tool controller and the positioning of the robot in the working area. Then the values of the nanoindentation or of the scanning can be read through the IrDA interface without any other external action. Due to the strong power and area restrictions, the controller has been implemented in specific logic in a 0.35um technology. The design has been done using functional specifications with high level tools and RTL synthesis. The AFM scanner can be positioned with a resolution of 10 nm and scan areas up to 1 μm2 with an expected vertical resolution of 1nm.

SiP power management unit with embedded temperature sensor powered by piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting

Nowadays, there is an important interest in smart wireless sensors. A key point in their development is the way they are powered. Piezoelectric energy conversion can be used for such purpose. In this paper, a novel architecture that combines in a single integrated circuit the power conditioning circuitry needed to use piezoelectric energy conversion and an embedded temperature sensor is presented.

Reduced Dimensions Autonomous AFM System for working in Microbiorobotics

In this paper we present the design of the test-bench developed for testing a Scanning Probe Microscopy System placed in an autonomous platform of reduced size (cm3) based on self-sensing probes, which has been designed for working on micro-robotics or other applications where optical detection is not possible or convenient. The micro-robot will hold the SPM scanner at the end of an actuator arm. The tool consists on a 3DOF piezoelectric actuator which allows the robot to scan an XYZ area and a self-sensing probe cantilever assembled at its end instead of the classical optical detection method; it reduces the total dimensions and power requirements. The design is developed as a software/hardware system and we present the hardware circuitry, composed by full custom integrated drivers, the SPM head (sensor and actuator) and the measurement instrumentation. The SPM technique that is implemented is the Atomic Force or AFM microscopy, with a piezo-resistance probe-cantilever to sense the force in the nN range. All the control is done by software by a PC interface, which gives us the chance to do different tests. We present the measurement results on nano-indentation experiments carried out by this tool