ICRA 2010 Workshop on Mobile Microrobots

Date: Friday, May 7

Abstract

When people think of microrobots, they tend to generate visions of miniature agents roving throughout one's body, busily investigating and repairing as they go. In reality, there is a large gap in understanding and technology to be bridged before this vision becomes reality. This workshop focuses on untethered mobile microrobotic systems with major dimensions below the 1-2mm range. Robotic agents at these orders of magnitude often require fundamentally different approaches than their macroscale counterparts. These devices leverage concepts from a wide array of disciplines such biology, physics, chemistry, computer science, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering often with the aid of roboticists to provide the interface between fields. We will gather the leading researchers in the field for a full-day to share their work and experiences and to discuss the future directions of mobile microrobotic systems.

List of Topics

Electrostatic Control Methods
Magnetic Control Methods
Chemical Control Methods
Swimming Microrobots
Biologically Inspired Microrobots
Hybrid Biological Microrobots
Device Fabrication
Microrobotic Sensors
Multiple Agents Control Algorithms
Swarm Control
Current and Future Applications

Motivation and Objectives

Although mobile microrobotic systems have been proposed for years, veritable wireless mobile microrobots have only recently come into being. These devices found their origins in the MEMS community where much effort has been given to developing new types of actuators. Although actuators are important for micromanipulation tasks, mobile microrobots must also take into consideration sensing as well as intelligently interacting with their environment. Unlike their macroscale counterparts, microrobots are often unable to leverage off-the-shelf individual components such as sensors, actuators, and computing units for use on-board due to size and fabrication requirements. Thus, microrobots are often designed as part of multidisciplinary efforts where the system is holistically designed, often for a particular task or environment. This inherent interdisciplinarity of microrobotics makes it a challenging research environment, and favors collaboration between different groups.

Due to its relative newness and the small size of the field, few meetings with the express intent of discussing mobile robots in the submillimeter range have occurred. As this field matures and more researchers participate, it becomes important to gather the members for networking, explanations, discussions, and debate. This workshop will provide an international venue for presentation and discussion between the world's leading microrobotics researchers. The workshop will encompass discussions on a variety of wireless actuation and sensing technologies, as well as control methodologies and future applications. Participants will be exposed to a wide variety of different successful device strategies and will be able to participate in panel discussions as to the efficacy of the proposed strategies and future directions of the field. As one would expect, working with individual agents, often on the order of a few tens of microns, can be a challenging affair. Therefore, in addition to purely academic discussions of the different technologies, participants will also discuss real-world concerns about interacting with the devices (such as agent handling, environmental concerns, etc.) in an effort to bootstrap those interested in future participation to the field.

Primary/Secondary Audience

The format of the full-day workshop will entail 15 minute presentations that are roughly grouped by topic with question and answer sessions. Before the workshop, the organizers and session chairs will work with the various presenters to identify key topics that each session should address, which will help comparisons and stimulate discussion. At the end of each session, presenters will be invited to participate in a mediated panel discussion on the related topics.

Organizers/Contact

Brad Kratochvil
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
tel: +41 44 632 69 21
bkratochvil@ethz.ch

Conference web page:
http://icra2010.grasp.upenn.edu/

Presentations

Session: Wireless Actuation Methods Session Chair: Brad Kratochvil 9:00-10:45	Presenter
Design, Fabrication and Parallel Control of Distributed Systems of Stress-engineered MEMS Microrobots for Microassembly related works by presenter: Planar Microassembly by Parallel Actuation of MEMS Microrobots An untethered, electrostatic, globally controllable MEMS micro-robot	Igor Paprotny, U. C. Berkeley
Reconfigurable Magnetic Micro-Modules related works by presenter: Modeling and Experimental Characterization of an Untethered Magnetic Micro-Robot Multiple Magnetic Microrobot Control using Electrostatic Clamping	Metin Sitti, Carnegie Mellon
MagMites - Microrobots for Wireless Microhandling in Dry and Wet Environments related works by presenter: Small, fast, and under control: wireless resonant magnetic micro-agents Wireless Resonant Magnetic Microactuator for Untethered Mobile Microrobots	Dominic Frutiger, ETH Zurich
Panel Discussion - Wireless Actuation Methods
Coffee Break 10:45-11:00
Session: Swimming Actuation Methods Session Chair: Dave Cappelleri 11:00-12:00	Presenter
Controlled Propulsion of Artificial Magnetic Nanostructured Propellers related works by presenter: Controlled Propulsion of Artificial Magnetic Nanostructured Propellers	Peer Fischer, Harvard University
Artificial Bacterial Flagella: Fabrication and Magnetic Control related works by presenter: Artificial Bacterial Flagella: Fabrication and Magnetic Control Characterizing the Swimming Properties of Artificial Bacterial Flagella	Li Zhang, ETH Zurich
Lunch Break 12:00-13:00
Session: Wireless Actuation Methods II Session Chair: Samara Firebaugh 13:00-15:00	Presenter
Biosensing and Actuation for Microbiorobots related works by presenter: Harnessing bacterial power for micro scale manipulation and locomotion	M. Selman Sakar, University of Pennsylvania
Designing Catalytic Nanomotors by Dynamic Shadowing Growth related works by presenter: Designing Catalytic Nanomotors by Dynamic Shadowing Growth	John Gibbs, University of Georgia
Catalytic Microtube Engines related works by presenter: Catalytic Microtubular Jet Engines Self-propelled by Accumulated Gas Bubbles Versatile Approach for Integrative and Functionalized Tubes by Strain Engineering of Nanomembranes on Polymers	Oliver G. Schmidt, IFW Dresden
Panel Discussion - Fluidic Propulsion Methods
Coffee Break 15:00-15:15
Session: Control, Applications, and Future Directions Session Chair: Jason Gorman 15:15-17:00	Presenter
Nonuniform Fields for Magnetic Control related works by presenter: How Should Microrobots Swim? Robotics in the Small, Part I: Microrobotics	Jake Abbott, University of Utah
Control of Many Agents Using Few Instructions related works by presenter: Control of Many Agents Using Few Instructions Control of Many Agents by Moving their Targets: Maintaining Separation	Aaron Becker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Flagellated magnetotactic bacteria as controlled MRI-trackable propulsion and steering systems related works by presenter: Flagellated magnetotactic bacteria as controlled MRI-trackable propulsion and steering systems for medical nanorobots operating in the human microvasculature	Sylvain Martel, Ecole Polytechnique Montreal
Panel Discussion - Control, Applications, and Future Directions
Apero/Dinner >18:00

Participant's Robots





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