Mechanical and controller design of a modular mechatronic device - MechaCell

Since ancient times people have been building tools to aid them in their life. Robots evolved from being purely mechanical to mechatronic, from immobile to mobile and became smaller in scale. As the technology in building robots matured researchers, began working to build robotic systems that cooperate similar to the ones in nature. Ability of ants to accomplish tasks beyond the capability of a single ant intrigued scientists in robotics society to mimic that feature of ants and develop simple modules that alone cannot accomplish much, but together can complete complex assignments. Our motivation is to develop a miniaturizable mechatronic module{MechaCell. Mechanical design focuses on a novel locomotion system having a mechanism that converts vibrations into translational motion. Two independent controllers, one for steering and one for translational speed control are designed such that MechaCell can follow a complex path and group of MechaCells can guide an object to follow a complex path. Simulation results from the model of the MechaCell developed in SimMechanics are presented. Experimental setup comprising of a Bluetooth enabled PC, a platform, an overhead camera and four MechaCells is set up and simulation results are experimentally veri ed. Possible application of coordinated object manipulation is in manufacturing systems that have limited xture capabilities and desired precision in sub{centimeter levels.