Methods and Results for Rotation of Diamagnetic Robots Using Translational Designs

Magnetic micro-robots have a variety of potential applications for biomedical manipulation and microassembly. However, providing independent degrees of freedom to individual magnetic micro-robots can be hindered by the large numbers of local coils or traces required to achieve all degrees of freedom. In this paper, we explore the use of novel control strategies and mechanical constraints to provide additional rotational degrees of freedom to underactuated multipole magnetic robots originally designed with only translational degrees of freedom. By carefully applying repulsive impulse forces and changing the center of rotation, we show that a dynamic in-plane rotation of 3500 deg/s can be achieved. By using other geometries of mechanical constraints such as a wheel on axle, we can also demonstrate 1800 deg/s out-of-plane rotation.