Study and implementation of electrostatic actuation for programmable matter modules

Abstract

Actuation of micro-robots in relation to the field of programmable matter has been the aim of most researches working on the topic. Most studies have concentrated on the ability of these robot modules to latch with one another and to be able to move around each other to form the desired configuration. These mostly have been based on Modular Self re-configurable Robots (MSR) which use mechanical, magnetic or pneumatic method in their manoeuvres. However, these have been faced by the challenges of miniaturization, power consumption and power transfer between modules. Electrostatic actuation has attracted more interest in recent works due to the ability to scale down the modules and to use the configuration for power transfer and communication. In this work, we propose to use electrostatic chuck principle to actuate modules having a cylinder form. Instead of using one array of electrodes, two columns of electrodes array, positive and negative, are considered to increase the force generated by the chuck effect. An array of electrodes prototype has been fabricated using lithography process for validating the actuation. A sufficient force and torque are generated for latching and making the cylinder rolling respectively, thus validating and showing the potential of electrostatic actuation for miniaturized programmable matter application.