Jaime López-Sánchez

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.

Smart Power Integrated Circuit for a Piezoelectric Miniature Robot

A BCD technology (Bipolar, CMOS, DMOS) is used to implement a high voltage smart power integrated circuit in order to obtain a fully integrated Smart Powered Piezoactuator Unit (SPU) for a new generation of miniature robots with sizes around 1 cm3. The integrated circuit is based on a mixed-mode circuit with power analogue output circuitry and digital input control circuitry. A specific driving system strategy is defined based on ICs assembled on-board with a serial communication interface. This minimizes the number of wires connecting the miniature robot to improve the robot motion performances and is a first step towards fully autonomy. Six samples of the ICs have been assembled onto a driving platform and tested with good results.

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.

A miniature robot driven by smart power integrated circuits

A cm/sup 3/-sized miniature robot for micromanipulation is presented. In order to achieve a high level of miniaturization, monolithic piezoactuator units are used and a new approach, called the smart powered piezoactuator unit (SPU), is used to integrate the driving circuitry on the robot platform. The SPU is based on the power drivers mounted closely to the actuator, and a serial communication interface which reduces the number of wires to the robot. Different serial communication protocols were developed and tested in order to achieve the maximum speed or maximum accuracy. A complete miniature robot was built, and the control of 5-axial movements using the robot is demonstrated.

Self-powered adaptive circuit sampling for a piezoelectric harvester

This paper proposes a low-cost true self-powered start-up and control circuitry for an envisaged system based on commercial vibration energy harvesting sources, that is oriented to structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. The proposed circuitry is quite simple and assures a battery less system just working with piezoelectrical generators. This architecture works looking for the maximum mechanical to electrical efficiency conversion, thanks to a continuous check of the open-load voltage at the piezoelectric generator, disconnecting it from the electronic circuitry, defining a true adaptive control unit. Also it is addressed the cold-start of the system. Initial experimental results are provided to verify its performance.

Smart power integrated circuits to drive piezoelectric actuators for a cm3 microrobot system

Today, the use of robots for self acting tasks in applications ranging from biology and medicine to microsystems technology demand miniaturized dimensions and high-precision handling techniques. A lot of these tasks have been carried out by humans, but the manual capabilities are restricted to certain tolerances. Transport and manipulation of biological cells or assembly of micromechanical parts are the best suited applications for microrobots with sizes about cm3. Low cost and high-resolution actuators are critical performances which determine to choose piezoceramic materials as more suitable for micropositioning and micromanipulation units of a cm3 microrobot. Smart Piezoactuator Unit (SPUs) as a basic element of a new generation of cm3 microrobots have been developped. The main characteristic of this proposed Smart Piezoactuator Unit system is the integration of driving circuitry with the piezoelectric actuators and to include a serial communication interface to minimize the number of power and command wires. Micropositioning and micromanipulation units are developed combining properly 6 Smart Piezoactuator Units each one. A BCD technology (Bipolar, CMOS, DMOS) is used to design high voltage smart power integrated circuit for these Smart Piezoactuator Units. Using this technology we integrate in the same chip 4 power drivers with its control and protection circuitry.

A portable point-of-care device for multi-parametric diabetes mellitus analysis

We present a small, compact and portable envisaged lab-on-a-chip (LoC) device for point-of-care (PoC) detection of different key parameters on diabetes mellitus analysis; glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides and hematocrit. These four parameters, present in blood samples, are important in the standardized analysis affecting different patients with different medical conditions. The quantification of glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides and hematocrit it is performed with a single disposable device using a single blood drop, enhancing disposition decision time and improving patient satisfaction when compared with actual analytical methodology, and it is an easy to use device and no skilled personnel is needed to use it, avoiding the use of more complicated processes like phlebotomy. The presented device consists of a custom sensing system, low power electronic instrumentation and an easy user interpretation readout display, powered by a single battery.

An adaptative self-powered energy harvester strain sensing device based of mechanical vibrations for structural health monitoring applications

This paper presents an adaptative self-powered energy harvester strain sensing device based of mechanical vibrations for structural health monitoring applications which, even having multiple fields of application, is framed in the aerospace field. This solution uses a piezoelectric transducer as an energy source, harvesting the energy provided by the in-flight vibration of the aircrafts wing, and as a strain sensor while it assures the accomplishment of maximum power transferred condition between the piezoelectric transducer and the load. The strain measured is outputted by 6-bit parallel output. The experimental results obtained validate the solution as a true self-powered energy harvesting solution able to monitor the strain suffered by the mechanical part where it is attached. Also validate that the maximum power transferred condition is accomplished regardless the characteristics of the oscillations of the mechanical part and the characteristics of the load.

A low-power electronic instrumentation for multi-parametric diabetes mellitus analysis

We present a small, compact and low-power electronic instrumentation for a point-of-care (PoC) device for the early diagnosis of diabetes mellitus and associated risk factors. The presented system consists of a low-power 4-channel potentiostat, a transducer with 4 separate electrochemical cells featuring different biosensors, and a low-cost printed battery. The system is designed to measure key parameters on diabetes mellitus analysis, such as: glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides. It has been designed as a disposable device using a single blood drop to quantify these parameters, enhancing disposition decision time and improving patient satisfaction when compared with current analytical methodology. The electronic instrumentation has been designed to simultaneously control and read the measurement of the 4 different sensors on the transducer block/chip. In this paper, we present the previous evaluation of the system through different cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry analysis compared with a commercial multichannel potentiostat 1030B from CH Instruments. The system presents accurate and reliable performance powered by a printed electrochemical battery.

Piezoelectric harvester-based self-powered adaptive circuit with wireless data transmission capability for structural health monitoring

A novel piezoelectric harvester-based self-powered adaptive solution with wireless data transmission capability for structural health monitoring is presented. This work demonstrates the accomplishment of maximum power transferred condition for a wide range load conditions and for different amplitudes and frequencies oscillation of the piezoelectric transducer. The characterization of the wireless transmission of temperature and open voltage circuit of the piezoelectric transducer is also presented to support the use of this solution as a wireless self-powered adaptive structural health monitor solution.