ARRIpede: An Assembled Die-Scale Microcrawler

The combination of three-dimensional microassembly and bulk micromachining allows manufacturing robots that are small, precise, dexterous and that have a large payload carrying capacity. In this paper, we present a mobile micropositioner, or a microcrawler robot constructed by microassembly, that can carry more than twice its own weight. The 'ARRIpede' spans a volume of 1.2 cm x 1.2 cm x 1 cm consisting of a multi-legged micromechanical module packaged with an electronic backpack. The micromechanical module consists of high-stiffness microassembled joints powered by electrothermal actuators. The backpack consists of a Li-polymer battery and power electronics boards designed to power the electrothermal actuators. The robot has been designed using a stick-slip simulation model to carry a payload up to 9 g and reach linear velocities up to 3 mm/s. The micromanufacturing sequences covering fabrication, microassembly and packaging are detailed in this paper. Packaged prototypes are evaluated experimentally to verify the leg actuation force, payload carrying capacity, power consumption, precision, crawling velocity and steering ability. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden and The Robotics Society of Japan, 2011