Micro-robotic systems are increasingly used in medicine and other fields requiring precision engineering. This paper proposes a piezoelectric impacttype rotary actuator and applies it to a millimetre-size robot controlled by a hardware neuron model. The rotary actuator and robot are fabricated by micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. The actuator is composed of multilayer piezoelectric elements. The rotational motion of the rotor is generated by the impact head attached to the piezoelectric element. The millimetre-size robot is fitted with six legs, three on either side of the developed actuator, and can walk on uneven surfaces like an insect. The three leg parts on each side are connected by a linking mechanism. The control system is a hardware neuron model constructed from analogue electronic circuits that mimic the behaviour of biological neurons. The output signal ports of the controller are connected to the multilayer piezoelectric element. This robot system requires no specialized software programs or A/D converters. The rotation speed of the rotary actuator reaches 60 rpm at an applied neuron frequency of 25 kHz during the walking motion. The width, length and height of the robot are 4.0, 4.6 and 3.6 mm, respectively. The motion speed is 180 mm/min.

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microrobotic systems are increasingly used in medicine and other fields requiring precision engineering. This paper proposes a piezo impact-type rotary actuator and applies it to a millimeter-size robot controlled by an artificial intelligence (AI) system. The rotary actuator and robot are fabricated by micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technology using a silicon wafer. The actuator is composed of multilayer piezoelectric elements. The rotational motion of the rotor is generated by the impact head attached to the piezoelectric element. The millimeter-size robot is fitted with six legs on either side of the developed actuator, and can walk on uneven surfaces like an insect. The three leg parts are connected by a link mechanism. The control system is constructed from analog electronic circuits that mimic the behavior of biological neurons. The output signal ports of the controller are connected to the multilayer piezoelectric element. This robot system requires no specialized software programs or A/D converters. The rotation speed of the rotary actuator reaches 60 rpm at an applied AI frequency of 25 kHz. The sideways, endways, and height dimensions of the robot are 4.0, 4.6, and 3.6 mm, respectively. The motion speed is 180.0 mm/min.

This paper describes insect type micro robots controlled by a CMOS IC of hardware neural networks. The micro robot is fabricated by the micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technology using a silicon wafer, and the actuator is composed of artificial muscle wires on the basis of shape memory alloy. Insect-like walking is achieved by link mechanisms that transform the actuator's rotational motion to locomotive motion. The CMOS IC generates the driving waveform of the micro robot and realizes insect-like walking. The hardware neural networks are built as cell body models and inhibitory synaptic models. The output signal ports of the hardware neural networks are connected to the artificial-muscle-wire-driving circuit. This robot system does not require specialized software programs and A/D converters. The developed neural networks are composed of self-functioning, interconnected plural unit neurons. For proper driving, each neuron in the developed neural network control must be synchronized, as occurs in the neural networks of living organisms. In this study, the motion of the MEMS micro robot is controlled by non-synchronization and anti-phase synchronization driving waveforms. When the nonsynchronization driving waveform is input, the micro robot ceases walking motion, but resumes walking upon receipt of the anti-phase synchronization driving waveform. The sideways, endways, and height dimensions of the fabricated micro robot are 4.0 mm, 2.7 mm and 2.5 mm, respectively. The obtained locomotion speed is 26.4 mm/min and the step width is 0.88 mm.

In this paper, we presented the 4.0, 2.7, 2.5 (mm), width, length, height size biomimetics micro robot system which was inspired by ant. The micro robot system was made from silicon wafer fabricated by micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. The mechanical system of the robot was equipped with small size rotary type actuators, link mechanisms and six legs to realize the insect-like switching behavior. In addition, we constructed the complementary metal oxide semiconductor integrated circuit neural networks (CMOS IC NN) as a locomotion controlling system. The CMOS IC NN utilized the pulse-type hardware neuron model (P-HNM) as a basic component. The CMOS IC NN outputs the driving pulses using synchronization phenomena such as biological neural networks. The driving pulses can operate the actuators of the biomimetics micro robot directly. Therefore, the CMOS IC NN realized the robot control without using any software programs or A/D converters. The micro robot emulated the locomotion method and the neural networks of an insect with rotary type actuators, link mechanisms and CMOS IC NN. The micro robot performed forward and backward locomotion, and also changed direction by inputting an external trigger pulse. The locomotion speed was 26.4 (mm/min) when the step width was 0.88 (mm).