Turning-rate Selective Control : A New Method for Independent Control of Stress-engineered MEMS Microrobots

We present a novel method for independently controlling multiple stress-engineered MEMS microrobots (MicroStressBots) through a single, global, control signal. Called Turning-rate Selective Control (TSC), this new technique employs designed variations in turning rates between individual microrobots to differentiate their motion. Despite all robots moving simultaneously and being identical except for exhibiting different turning rates, TSC can individually and independently position the robots’ centers of rotation within a planar configuration space. This allows the individual robots to be independently maneuverable to within a distance equal to the turning radius (approximately half of a microrobot width) away from an arbitrary location (configuration excluding rotation) in R. We introduce the theory behind TSC and, by using fabricated microrobots, show experimental results that confirm the feasibility of TSC for controlling multiple MicroStressBots through a single, global, control signal. We conclude by discussing how TSC can extend the maximum number of independently controllable MicroStressBots beyond previously published approaches.