A Millimeter-Scale Micro Crawling Robot with Fast-Moving Driven by a Miniature Electromagnetic Linear Actuator

The micro crawling robot exhibits significant potential applications in various fields such as fault detection, disaster relief, and environmental monitoring. This article introduces a high-performance millimeter scale crawling robot driven by a miniature electromagnetic linear actuator (MELA) with a body length of 5-6 mm and a mass of 80 mg. In this article, the working principle of the micro robot is analyzed and validated, and the influence of current, frequency, and angle alpha between the direction of actuator's force and the crawling surface on the crawling speed are analyzed through experiments. Results show that the optimal alpha ranges from 50 degrees to 55 degrees, and a specific current and frequency are identified to achieve maximum crawling speed for robot with particular alpha. When alpha is 50 degrees, with a current of 300 mA and a frequency of 200 Hz, the robot reached the maximum speed of 20.2 Body Length s-1(BL s-1). The proposed robot can crawl at 12 BL s-1 with a load of 110 mg, and support a maximum load of 400 mg. Additionally, the robot demonstrated diverse capabilities such as climbing on a 10 degrees slope with a load of 110 mg, jumping on a 1 mm obstacle, and crawling on surfaces of various materials. In article 202300909, Zhu, Li, et al. designed a 5 mm crawling robot driven by a miniature electromagnetic linear actuator. It has a sturdy structure, and a speed of 20.2 Body Length s-1 on various surfaces, demonstrating capabilities as loading, climbing, and jumping. The robot exhibits potential for equipment fault detection, disaster relief, and biomedical transport.image (c) 2024 WILEY-VCH GmbH