https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-023-00348-w
Regular Article - Soft Matter
A programmable ferrofluidic droplet robot
1
School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, 100191, Beijing, China
2
Ningbo Institute of Technology, Beihang University, 315800, Ningbo, China
3
Tianmushan Laboratory, 310023, Hangzhou, China
4
Science and Technology on Aircraft Control Laboratory, Beihang University, 100191, Beijing, China
Received:
3
May
2023
Accepted:
10
September
2023
Published online:
26
September
2023
Soft miniature robots have wide potential applications in lab-on-a-chip and biomedical sciences due to their deformability, safety, and remarkable controllability. However, current ferrofluidic droplet robots have some problems, such as easy broken, limited motion range and high energy consumption. Therefore, the objective of this study is to propose a programmable ferrofluidic flexible droplet robot (PFDR) with control strategies for elongation, splitting and merging behaviors by designing an actuation system consisting of a row of electromagnets and a robotic arm or a coordinate robot. The PFDR can not only deform actively to prevent itself from breaking, but also deform passively to fit the profile of channels or tubes to move efficiently. The actuation system can make PFDR have larger motion range as well as lower energy consumption. The design concept and the operating principle of PFDR are presented. The magnetic actuation system is developed. The lag of PFDR is analyzed in theoretical and experimental ways. The splitting and merging behaviors are investigated and other functionalities are studied as well.
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-023-00348-w
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, SIF and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
