Performance of a 7-mm microfabricated car

A 7-mm-scale miniature car was manufactured as a conceptional model of a micromachine. The car consists of a chassis, a shell body, and an electromagnetic motor whose diameter is 1.0 mm. The motor consists of a core shaft, a coil, and a cylindrical permanent magnet magnetized by a special tool. The car runs at the maximum speed of 100 mm/sec by electric power. This is the smallest wheel driven mechanism in the world. The moving characteristics are investigated in detail by a high-speed video camera. Through the experiments, problems of the moving mechanism for micromachines are studied. >