Micro robot system with moving micro-car driven by electrostatic comb-drive actuators

Abstract

This paper describes a silicon micro robot system (MRS) that is capable of driving micro-cars in different directions based on a ratchet mechanism and electrostatic comb-drive actuators. Lateral movement of the ratchet racks makes the micro-car move in the perpendicular direction with different velocities. Based on MEMS technology, the MRS described in this article was fabricated from a silicon on insulator wafer by using only one photo mask. In our experiments, various driving frequencies ranging from 1 to 20 Hz were used to accelerate the microcar up to 200 lm/s. It was observed that the velocity of the micro-car was proportional to the driving frequency used in the experiments. This relation was also confirmed with our theoretical calculation. When combined with microscopes, this MRS can be applied in bio-medical analysis for transportation and classification of small samples. Copyright © 2010 Springer-Verlag.