Propulsion and steering of a floating mini-robot based on Marangoni flow actuation

Visvanathan, Karthik; Shariff, Farah; Yee, Seow Yuen; Basu, Amar S.

doi:10.1109/sensor.2009.5285867

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Due to its hydrophobic properties parylene floats on water, and with a driving voltage of 30-40 V, these devices achieved a speed of 6.5 mm min −1 . Visvanathan et al developed a similar device relying on thermal Marangoni flow [144]. This design comprises six legs floating due to surface tension.…”

Section: Drag-based Fluidic Microactuatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pneumatic and hydraulic microactuators: a review

Volder

Reynaerts

2010

J. Micromech. Microeng.

253

161

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The development of MEMS actuators is rapidly evolving and continuously new progress in terms of efficiency, power and force output is reported. Pneumatic and hydraulic are an interesting class of microactuators that are easily overlooked. Despite the 20 years of research, and hundreds of publications on this topic, these actuators are only popular in microfluidic systems. In other MEMS applications, pneumatic and hydraulic actuators are rare in comparison with electrostatic, thermal or piezo-electric actuators. However, several studies have shown that hydraulic and pneumatic actuators deliver among the highest force and power densities at microscale. It is believed that this asset is particularly important in modern industrial and medical microsystems, and therefore, pneumatic and hydraulic actuators could start playing an increasingly important role. This paper shows an in-depth overview of the developments in this field ranging from the classic inflatable membrane actuators to more complex piston-cylinder and drag-based microdevices.

show abstract

Section: Drag-based Fluidic Microactuatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pneumatic and hydraulic microactuators: a review

Volder

Reynaerts

2010

J. Micromech. Microeng.

253

161

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…By exploiting the Marangoni effect, various selfdriven systems (mostly boats) have been proposed [64,[68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76], and one of the frequently used propellants is alcohol because of its low surface tension (typically 21-24 mN m −1 ). In [72], a syringe was considered to continuously dispense alcohol behind the boat and obtain propulsion.…”

Section: Development Of Bio-inspired Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A mixture of polysulfone and N-dimethylformamide (DMF) was used to fabricate a small capsule [76], and it could navigate a Teflon maze under the Marangoni effect by releasing residual DMF from small pores. Another interesting source of Marangoni propulsion was the thermal gradient of water [70]. The H-shaped boat shown in figure 9(e) has small heaters made of Fluorinert, which have low thermal conductivity, on its legs; however they were manually heated using a soldering iron to obtain propulsion.…”

Section: Development Of Bio-inspired Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Locomotion of arthropods in aquatic environment and their applications in robotics

Kwak

Bae²

2018

Bioinspir. Biomim.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many bio-inspired robots have been developed so far after careful investigation of animals' locomotion. To successfully apply the locomotion of natural counterparts to robots for efficient and improved mobility, it is essential to understand their principles. Although a lot of research has studied either animals' locomotion or bio-inspired robots, there have only been a few attempts to broadly review both of them in a single article. Among the millions of animal species, this article reviewed various forms of aquatic locomotion in arthropods including relevant bio-inspired robots. Despite some previous robotics research inspired by aquatic arthropods, we found that many less-investigated or even unexplored areas are still present. Therefore, this article has been prepared to identify what types of new robotics research can be carried out after drawing inspiration from the aquatic locomotion of arthropods and to provide fruitful insights that may lead us to develop an agile and efficient aquatic robot.

show abstract

“…On the other hand, Marangoni convection, flow induced by the surface tension gradient on a gas-liquid interface, has attracted attention as a microscale fluid handling technique used for a droplet motion controller (Chaudhury and Whitesides, 1992) and a microscale mixer (Yamada and Ono, 2015). Besides, Marangoni convection has been utilized to drive rigid objects floating on the liquid surface, including micromirrors on a droplet (Dhull et al, 2011), micro motors on a water surface (Maggi et al, 2015), floating mini-robots (Visvanathan et al, 2009), and laser-driven small objects on a water surface (Okawa et al, 2009). Since these devices need a gas-liquid interface to drive them, there has been no report on surface tension-driven devices moving underwater.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microscale engine swimming underwater powered by Marangoni convection

Tange

Takizawa

Nagira

et al. 2016

JTST

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study proposes a prototype of a microscale engine swimming underwater powered by Marangoni convection. The engine is a layered disk with a hole and holds a bubble ring in a gap between the layers. When the liquid-gas interface at the hole edge has the surface tension gradient, the engine gains the thrust force as the reaction of Marangoni convection. In a temperature Marangoni convection experiment, one side of the engine was heated by a laser, to make temperature gradient on the liquid-gas interface. It was confirmed that Marangoni convection was generated while the expanding bubble plugged the hole, to prevent the flow penetrating through the hole. In a concentration Marangoni convection experiment, pure water and acetic acid were injected toward the hole at each side, to make concentration gradient. The engine successfully generated jet-like flow through the hole to drive itself by 1.2 mm. PIV analysis visualized the flow field around the engine and the velocity profile of the jet. The jet direction was not stable because of the non-uniformity of the concentration on the gas-liquid interface and the magnitude of the jet velocity gradually diminished with the diffusion of acetic acid. The thrust force of the engine was estimated as 270 nN by calculating the momentum conservation equation of the flow around the engine.

show abstract

Propulsion and steering of a floating mini-robot based on Marangoni flow actuation

Cited by 9 publications

References 10 publications

Pneumatic and hydraulic microactuators: a review

Pneumatic and hydraulic microactuators: a review

Locomotion of arthropods in aquatic environment and their applications in robotics

Microscale engine swimming underwater powered by Marangoni convection

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About