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Automatically controlled vibration- driven robots

Nikolai N. Bolotnik

Sergey F. Jatsun

Andrey S. Jatsun

Andrey A. Cherepanov

Institute for Problems in


Mechanics of the Russian
Academy of Sciences
119526 Moscow,
Vernadsky ave. 101 b.1,
Russia
bolotnik@ipmnet.ru

Kursk State Technical


University

Kursk State Technical


University

Kursk State Technical


University

50 let Oktyabrya, 94,


305040 Kursk, Russia

50 let Oktyabrya, 94,


305040 Kursk, Russia

50 let Oktyabry, 94,


305040 Kursk, Russia

jatsun@kursknet.ru

andj@inbox.ru

Abstract - Mobile robots are widely utilized for various


operations in environments inaccessible to a human or
dangerous for him. They are utilized, for example, for
inspection and repair work in nuclear power and chemical
plants, operations in areas of wreckage after earthquakes or
blasts, or dismantling explosive devices [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Most of
these robots move by means of wheels or caterpillars, some of
them utilize walking mechanisms. Such robots, however,
cannot enter narrow slots (for example, during rescue
operations in a zone of wreckage) or move in dense media
other than gases or liquids. This justifies looking for new
concepts of motion to enable robots to move efficiently in
environments inaccessible to robots with wheel, caterpillar,
and walking propelling systems. This issue is especially
topical for medical robots designed for the motion through
rather narrow channels (e.g., in blood vessels or the
intestines) or among muscles to reach an affected organ to
perform a diagnostic or surgical operation.

Hopping motion of the vibration-driven robot. 1-robot, 2-environment, 3supporting surface, 4-traj ectory.

The vibration-driven robot is designed as a mechatronic


system consisting of the mechanical, electrical, and
electronic (microcomputer) components. The mechanical
vibration is transmitted from the vibration exciter to the
robot's body, which interacts with the environment with
some force. The robot is equipped with a feedback
microcontroller to maintain an efficient operation mode

and provide prescribed characteristics of motion of the


end-effector under the action of various disturbances. The
characteristics of the exciter vibration should be tuned to a
specific task to be executed by the robot. This tuning can
be provided on the basis of parametric optimization in
which an operating characteristic of the robot (e.g., the
average velocity of the robot) is used as the objective
function.

tV

II MATHEMATICAL MODEL AND DESIGN OF A


VIBRATION-DRIVEN ROBOT WITH A ONECOORDINATE ELECTROMAGNETIC VIBRATION

EXCITER

Figure 1 .Motion of the vibration-driven robot without separation from the

The motion of the robot can be provided by a one-

surface. 1-robot, 2-environment, 3-supporting surface.

1-4244-9713-4/06/$20.OO 2006 IEEE

Figure 2.

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7

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F,

In the present paper, the concept of vibration-driven robots


is developed. Such robots can move in various media
without wheels, caterpillars or legs. The propulsion of the
robot is provided due to vibration of internal masses inside
the robot and the interaction of the robot's body with the
environment. The robot can move without separation from
the supporting surface (Fig. 1) or hop (Fig. 2).

| \ Xx ,
~~~~~~x
|
X tv///X
X
G

INTRODUCTION

/___

__

coordinate vibration exciter, the working body of which


vibrates along the line of motion of the robot (Figs. 3 and

438

N. N. Bolotnik, S. F Jatsun, A. S. Jatsun, A. A. Cherepanov Automatically Controlled Vibration-driven Robots


-

v,

4). However, in this case, it is necessary that either the


characteristic of friction between the robot body and the
environment or the exciter vibration be asymmetric. The
robot under consideration was designed for cleaning
pipelines from solid deposits.

;,

7~715

F1

b)
Figure 4. Pipeline-cleaner mnini-robot with an electromagnetic actuator

and two asymmetric friction elements

a) - general view of the cleaner:


Figre3.chmaic f
1 -first solid body; 2- electromagnet; 3 - anchor; 4- second solid body;
iud -spherical
asymmetric friction component. 1-pp 'hacene liquid
friction mechanism; 6 - elastic element.
spherical ffiction mechanism,~3- contact element; 4- movable
electromagnet; 5-spring; 6-armature rigidly attached to the contact
b)- design schematic of the cleaner;
element.
ml and i2- masses of the robot components; X1 X - generalized
ToXdetermine
the
of the
cleaner
Todetermine the parameters of the cleaner robot, we
coordinates of masses; C and jt- spring rate and damping coefficient; C2
j -spring rate and damping coefficient of lifniter; Q -force generated by
developed a mathematical model that describes the
the electromagnetic exciter; P- force of elastic element; R - force of
interaction of the end-effector with the technological load
resistance; AX- length of limiter;JA -distance between masses without
(due to the resistance of the solid deposits) and the

virai-dpipenwnithiaceanse

2-e

parameters

we

reference of spring deformation

electromagnetic vibration actuator. The properties of the


solid deposits can be accounted for by the Maxwell-

FirThe dynamic

of the

robot with

an

electromagnetic

vibration actuator is modeled by the system of LagrangeMaxwell differential equations

Din

cm c3

m2 T2 =P2 -R2 + F
+ MI=U(t).

i-ob-t

Where:
Wher are &-manglesonlnto
of the frictionnetsX
,X-eerliemen
friction;
A
coefficient
of
-fditace
surface
fatan, lC fc. ~~~~~~(Xi
-X2 apn
C2AX,
2AX) if A<AVbeertweenb
is
is
mgetici;P flux;e of ls thcurreent, Wthreo
th ecthoageti

mdelthatdesribs th
deveope-- a mtheatial
- -interctionof th end-ffectr wit theechnoomasses;a
actspivegeectrmaioeisacno.h
ise thprisoterfrne
~ mgnti energy,o R-uaor There
electromagnetic ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~
is also

4- R
and RI ofcoVc
p2 -PI
if electromagnetic
solenod
the arogapwinsid
Sdsquare
=

a)

439

to

cuao smdld ytessemo

1,2

~~~p2Q2

arne

ICM 2006 * IEEE 3rd International Conference on Mechatronics

- electromagnetic constant; U(t) is the power supply


voltage, and VI V2. is velocity of masses.

forces created by the vibration exciters one can control the


motion of the robot.

P(Cd t+Q9

To solve the system of nonlinear differential equations


governing the motion of the robot we utilized the software
package MathCAD Professional. Based on the simulation
results, we determined the optimal parameters of the
electromagnetic vibration exciter and analyzed the motion
of the robot for various parameters of the technological
load and various values of the friction coefficient. The
results of the calculation of the force of friction and the
average velocity of the robot are illustrated in Figs. 5 and
6. Analysis shows that the maj or parameter that affects the
velocity of the cleaner robot is the ratio of the natural
vibration frequency of the robot to the excitation frequency
of the electromagnet.

Figure. 7. Dynamic model of the robot moving along a horizontal surface

We have investigated the influence of the phase difference

on the average velocity of the robot. The differential

equation of motion for the robot under consideration has


the form

Force of friction

Fx sin(w.t) (mg + Fy sin(It + 0 )) C sign(X) -,u

40

(Cd

35

of the robot (the generalized


X-isthe
displacement
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~where
0)
~ i
hs

30

151
t_ 0 E) E

10lTW
i...

-is the exciting frequency,


difference between the vertical and horizontal vibrations of
the exciters, f- is the coefficient of friction, m-is the mass
of the r bot, and
is the drug coefficient of the

coordinate),

20

0 tW 40 U

T il I i *1 h 1t1 1
0l 1001 1

T t 4 T 4 E T tt T 4 l
E T

0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1
05,,,,,,,,,, 10

E 4

environment.

4
22

Figure 5. Time history of the force of friction

10

2 68

14

-18
-14t
2,50E-01 l

zo)

2,00E-01 - ___ 1,50E-01

|1,00E-01

Figure 8. Time history of the displacement of the robot.

j---__
--

---__

l__

500E-02u-

il

Figure 6. The average velocity of the robot as a function of the relative o te v ra on exci.er .or d
lect
l feedn . . . . . .
.requency
......
......

III MATHEMATICAL MODEL AND


CALCULATIONS FOR A VIBRATION-DRIVEN 5
ROBOT WITH TWO INERTIAL VIBRATION
EXCITERS

l
Figure 9. The average velocity of the robot as a function of the phase
difference and the coefficient of friction.

Consider a vibration-driven robot with two vibration


exciters to generate the inertial forces both in the
horizontal and vertical directions. This makes it possible to
control the normal component of the force exerted on the
robot by the supporting surface. By varying the phase
difference between the vertical and horizontal inertial

The numerical simulation of the behavior of the robot


shown in Fig. 8 demonstrates high intensity of the
vibration transmitted to the robot body. This vibration can
complicate the operation of the equipment of the robot

440

N. N. Bolotnik, S. F Jatsun, A. S. Jatsun, A. A. Cherepanov Automatically Controlled Vibration-driven Robots

(e.g., video cameras or manipulators) or substantially

reduce the accuracy of measuring devices. To get rid of

Figure 11. Time history of the displacement of the robot equipped with
the platform.
this drawback, we propose to equip the robot with an
additional platform isolated from the robot body by a
displacement of the platform, 2 displacement of the robot body.
spritiong-anddaspot
vibration absomtherobobdyber.yMlat1
absorber. Manipulators,
spring-and-dashpot vibration
video cameras, and other devices should be installed on the
IV CONCLUSIONS
platform. The modified schematic of the robot is shown in
Fig. 10.
Vibration-driven robots with a one-coordinate vibration
exciter can move along a rough surface only if the friction
between the robot body and the supporting surface or/and
m2
Athe exciter vibrations have asymmetric characteristics.
Fy
xl
ml
mx2
zI
\
x2
Robots equipped with a one-coordinate exciter can be
M /
\
M FX
utilized for cleaning pipelines from solid deposits.
Robots equipped with two-coordinate vibration exciters
FTp2 FTP 1
can move even in the absence of an asymmetry in the
friction or vibration characteristics. The reverse in the
-

direction of motion is provided by changing the phase

Figure. 10. Schematic of the vibration-driven robot with an additional

difference between the vertical and horizontal excitation


vibrations.
To reduce the vibration level transmitted to the equipment
of the robot form the exciters it is reasonable to place this
equipment on a special platform isolated from the
vibration-driven robot body by a spring-dashpot vibration
absorber.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

platform.
m2 is the mass of the robot, x1 is the absolute displacement
of the platform, x2 is the absolute displacement of the robot
body, Fx and Fy are the forces generated by the vibration
exciters, c and , are the stiffness and damping
coefficients of the platform suspension.

The dynamics of the system shown in Fig. 10 is governed


by the following set of differential equations

X1i*

. X1-c (X1-X2)-C

(X1 -X2)-(mlg)

This investigation is supported by RBRF project No04-01-

04002, N205-08-33382.

sign(X,)

ml
*f. sign(X2)
sin(.-t) - CP X2- P (X2- Xl) - C (X2 - Xl) - (m2g - Fy sin(w. t + ())
m2

Fx

The simulation results obtained by the numerical solution


of this set of differential equations are shown in Fig. 11. It
is clear from this figure that the vibration level of the
platform is several times as low as that of the robot body to
which the vibration exciters are attached.

simulating earthworm and its control system. Journal of Shanghai

,\V\

Jiaotong University

Vol. 33 No.

7, 1999

Bolotnik N.N., Chernousko F.L., Kostin G.V., and Pfeiffer


Regular motion of a tube-crawling robot in a curved tube
Mechanics of Structures and Machines. 2002. Vol. 30. No. 4.
43 1-462.
[6] Bolotnik N.N., Chernousko F.L., Kostin G.V., and Pfeiffer
Regular motion of a tube-crawling robot in a curved tube
Mechanics of Structures and Machines. 2002. Vol. 30. No. 4.
431-462.

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[1] Aoshima, S.; Tsujimura, T.; Yabuta, T.: A miniature mobile robot
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[2] Yeh, R.; Hollar, S.; Pister, K.S.J.: Design of low-power silicon
articulated microrobots. Journal of Micromechatronics, Vol. 1,
Num. 3, 2001, pp. 191-203
[3] Gradetsky, V.G.; Knyazkov, M.M.; Kravchuk, L.N.; Solovtsov,
V.N.: Microsensor control of motion of compact robots inside tubes

(in Russian), Mikrosistemnaya Tekhnika [Microsystem


Engineering], No. 8, 2002, pp. 11-19
[4] Ma, J.; Lo, M.; Bao, Z.; Wang, A.: Micro peristaltic robot

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