Study on Insect Model-Based Robot

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The purpose of this research is to develop 1 to 10 mm sized microrobots. In this reseach, the most remarkable characteristics is that insects are considered as models for robots. In convensional robotics, the human and the mammal are models for designing the robot structure and the actuation algorithm. However, for small sized robots, the near sized insects should be selected as the model. One of characteristics of insects is that the body structure of insects is the external skeleton. External skeleton is suitable for the small sized structure.Moreover, external skeleton has good characteristic for actuation of small sized structure. In the small mechanism, the frictional force becomes greater than other forces --- the weight of body, the power of muscle, etc. --- and the mechanism cannot be deformed. On the insect, there does not exit the part which the friction force is generated. In this research, mu m sized structures were constructed refering the external skeleton of insects. Silicon process is used basically for micromachinning. Silicon film and polyimide film (low elastisity material) are assembled to get the external structure. With this structure, microant robot and micromosquito robot have been developed sucessfully. The size of these robots is about 1mm.For actuation, various new ideas have been applied. An ant robot walks with resonant vibration of legs, energy of which is supplied from vibrating floor. A mosquito robot flys with magnetized wings which beats in the alternative magetic field. A hexapod robot has also been develpoped. The motion of legs of this robot is generated autonomously like legs of insects actuated by reflex action. Reflex action of insects will be good model for actuation of micromachine to be developed in the future because of the simplicity of it.