A Millimeter-Scale Multilocomotion Microrobot Capable of Controlled Crawling and Jumping

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Biomimetics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Insects and animals exhibit powerful muscles for complex locomotion.
• Achieving controlled crawling and jumping in insect-sized robots is a significant engineering challenge.
• Existing actuators struggle with the scale and power requirements for microrobots.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel bionic muscle actuator for microrobots.
• To demonstrate controlled crawling and jumping capabilities in an insect-sized robot.
• To extend the application potential of bionic muscle actuators in micro-robotics.

Main Methods:

• A novel bionic muscle actuator utilizing joule heating to expand a chamber.
• A restoring spring element for actuator contraction and cycle completion.
• Fabrication of a microrobot with two actuators for crawling and one for jumping.

Main Results:

• The bionic actuator achieves high-frequency vibration with electrical signals.
• The microrobot (52 mg) demonstrated a maximum crawling turning velocity of 0.73 rad/s.
• The microrobot achieved a maximum jump height of 42 mm (10.5 times body height) and jump velocity of 0.91 m/s.

Conclusions:

• The novel bionic muscle actuator effectively enables microrobot locomotion.
• The developed microrobot exhibits impressive crawling and jumping performance.
• This actuator technology holds promise for future micro-robot applications.