Journal
SENSORS
Volume 13, Issue 5, Pages 5857-5869Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/s130505857
Keywords
micro-assembly; microfluidics; drops; bubbles; positioning
Funding
- PHC Tournesol project entitled MODIM
- BRI (Bureau des relations internationales) of ULB
- MicroMAST [IAP 7/38]
- BELSPO (Belgian Science Policy Office)
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This paper reports our work on developing a surface tension actuated micro-robotic platform supported by three bubbles (liquid environment) or droplets (gaseous environment). The actuation principle relies on the force developed by surface tension below a millimeter, which benefits from scaling laws, and is used to actuate this new type of compliant robot. By separately controlling the pressure inside each bubble, three degrees of freedom can be actuated. We investigated three sensing solutions to measure the platform attitude in real-time (z-position of each droplet, leading to the knowledge of the z position and Theta(x) and Theta(y) tilts of the platform). The comparison between optical, resistive, and capacitive measurement principles is hereafter reported. The optical technique uses SFH-9201 components. The resistive technique involves measuring the electrical resistance of a path flowing through two droplets and the platform. This innovative technique for sensing table position combines three pairs of resistances, from which the resistance in each drop can be deduced, thus determining the platform position. The third solution is a more usual high frequency (similar to 200 MHz) capacitive measurement. The resistive method has been proven reliable and is simple to implement. This work opens perspectives toward an interesting sensing solution for micro-robotic platforms.
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