Subassembly Generation via Mechanical Conformational Switches

Jakiela, Mark J.

doi:10.1162/artl.1995.2.4.377

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This is a significant issue when developing mechanical connections. Saitou and Jakiela (1995); Saitou (1999) paid close attention to the "releasable" mechanical connection mechanisms by modifying the connections reactive to their inputs.…”

Section: Approaches To Micro-robot Assemblymentioning

confidence: 99%

Two-dimensional magnetic micro-module reconfigurations based on inter-modular interactions

Miyashita

Diller

Sitti

2013

The International Journal of Robotics Research

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We present a scheme of two-dimensional module reconfiguration based on interactions between microscale magnetic modules with potential applications in micro-robotics, particularly in automatic micro-fabrication, non-invasive diagnoses, micro-surgery, and drug delivery at unreachable sites. The approach taken is a mixture of a top-down engineering approach and a bottom-up self-assembly approach, where reconfiguration commands are delivered from outside the workspace in the form of a magnetic field, which directs configuration changes in the set of modules by changing the strengths of individual magnetic moments. The magnetic modules in the study, 750 µm in size, are constrained to a liquid surface, providing a simplified two degrees of freedom translational motion environment, where the laterally interacting inter-module magnetic force determines the assembly configuration. In this way, the relative distance of the magnets simply reflects the strength of the interactions, and thus easily enables the design of the system's reconfiguration scenario. Reconfiguration occurs when the magnetic attractive forces are changed. To direct the assembly morphology in a controlled manner, the modules are addressed magnetically by incorporating a different magnetic material into each module type, each with different magnetic hysteresis characteristics. For addressing different modules' magnetizations, we incorporate three different magnetic materials that feature different magnetic coercivities. This allows for the independent control of the magnetization of each material using applied external fields of varying strength, leading to arbitrary configuration change in a three-module set and limited control over a four-module set. General cases with more than five modules are further discussed.

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Section: Approaches To Micro-robot Assemblymentioning

confidence: 99%

Two-dimensional magnetic micro-module reconfigurations based on inter-modular interactions

Miyashita

Diller

Sitti

2013

The International Journal of Robotics Research

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“…This case study discusses the role of a type of mechanical conformational switches, minus devices, [10], in onedimensional self-assembly via a sequential mating of a random pair of parts selected from a part bin called sequential random bin-picking. A part can form a "bond" with another part only at the left or right bond sites (hence forming a onedimensional assembly) when the two mating bond sites have complimentary shapes.…”

Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fig. 2(a) shows a part with a minus device [10]. It consists of right and left bars that can slide horizontally, and one inner sliding block that can slide vertically.…”

Section: A Sequential Random Bin-pickingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conformational switching in self-assembling mechanical systems

Saitou

1999

IEEE Trans. Robot. Automat.

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A study of one-dimensional (1-D) self-assembly of a type of mechanical conformational switches, minus devices is presented where assembly occurs via the sequential mating of a random pair of parts selected from a part bin, referred to as sequential random bin-picking. Parametric design optimization of the minus devices via a genetic algorithm maximizing the yield of a desired assembly, and rate equation analyzes of the resulting designs, reveal that the minus devices facilitate the robust yield of a desired assembly against the variation in the initial fraction of the part types, by specifying a fixed assembly sequence during the self-assembling process. It is also found that while the minus devices can "encode" some assembly sequences, encoding other assembly sequences requires the use of another type of conformational switches, plus devices. To investigate the "encoding power" of these conformational switches, a formal model of selfassembling systems, one-dimensional self-assembling automaton, is introduced, where assembly instructions are written as local rules that specify conformational changes realized by the conformational switches. It is proven that the local rules corresponding to the minus and plus devices, and three conformations per each component, can encode any assembly sequences of a one-dimensional assembly of distinct components with arbitrary length.

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