Study on micro mobile robot

This paper proposes FDM (Fur Driven Micro-mobile-mechanism) robots, using an electro magnetic actuator. The FDM moves by means of the difference in inertia and friction between forward and backward motion. We developed two types of the FDM robots. FDM 1 can move forward and is smaller than 10 mm3, while FDM2 can make a right turn and a left turn, as well as move forward. Both of FDM1 and FDM2 can be separated into two parts (body and leg). The leg is fitted with fur on the surface that faces the ground. Because this fur has the inclination to the ground, a friction difference between forward and backward motion is produced. As a result, we can observe a stick-slip motion which is well known in tribology. In this paper, the design of the micro mobile robots, the mechanism of motion, the analysis of motion, and the characteristics of this mobile robot based on the mathematical model are shown with some experimental results, which agree with the simulation results.