2024-01-18 ワシントン州立大学(WSU)
The WaterStrider weighs 55 milligrams and can move at 6 millimeters per second (photo by Bob Hubner, WSU Photo Services).
◆このアクチュエータは形状記憶合金を使用し、非常に軽量かつ効率的に動作します。ロボットは将来的には人工受粉、捜索救助、環境モニタリング、マイクロファブリケーション、またはロボット支援手術など、さまざまな分野で活用される可能性があります。
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.wsu.edu/press-release/2024/01/18/mini-robots-modeled-on-insects-may-be-smallest-lightest-fastest-ever-developed/
- https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10342518
マイクロロボットのための新しい1mg高速ユニモルフSMAベースアクチュエータ(A New 1-mg Fast Unimorph SMA-Based Actuator for Microrobotics)
Conor K. Trygstad, Xuan-Truc Nguyen, Néstor O. Pérez-A…
2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS Published:01-05 October 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS55552.2023.10342518
Abstract
We present a new unimorph actuator for micro-robotics, which is driven by thin shape-memory alloy (SMA) wires. Using a passive-capillary-alignment technique and existing SMA-microsystem fabrication methods, we developed an actuator that is 7 mm long, has a volume of 0.45 mm 3 , weighs 0.96 mg, and can achieve operation frequencies of up to 40 Hz as well as lift 155 times its own weight. To demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed actuator, we created an 8-mg crawler, the MiniBug, and a bioinspired 56-mg controllable water-surface-tension crawler, the WaterStrider. The MiniBug is 8.5 mm long, can locomote at speeds as high as 0.76 BL/s (body-lengths per second), and is the lightest fully-functional crawling microrobot of its type ever created. The WaterStrider is 22 mm long, and can locomote at speeds of up to 0.28 BL/s as well as execute turning maneuvers at angular rates on the order of 0.144 rad/s. The WaterStrider is the lightest controllable SMA-driven water-surface-tension crawler developed to date.
