TY - JOUR
T1 - Design and Real-Time Optimization for a Magnetic Actuation System with Enhanced Flexibility
AU - Du, Xingzhou
AU - Zhang, Moqiu
AU - Yu, Jiangfan
AU - Yang, Lidong
AU - Chiu, Philip Wai Yan
AU - Zhang, Li
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received March 26, 2020; revised July 8, 2020; accepted September 3, 2020. Date of publication September 9, 2020; date of current version June 15, 2021. This work was supported in part by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council under Project GRF14218516 and Project JLFS/E-402/18, in part by the RGC Collaborative Research Fund under Project C4063-18GF, and in part by the ITF Projects under Project MRP/036/18X and Project ITS/374/18FP funded by the HKSAR Innovation and Technology Commission, the Research Sustainability of Major RGC Funding Schemes, and the Direct Grant from CUHK. Recommended by Technical Editor J. Yoon and Senior Editor X. Tan. (Corresponding author: Li Zhang.) Xingzhou Du is with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, and Chow Yuk Ho Technology Centre for Innovative Medicine,The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (e-mail: [email protected]).
Publisher Copyright:
© 1996-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - In this article, a magnetic actuation system based on three mobile electromagnetic coils is designed and a control strategy for the system is proposed. Enhanced flexibility combined with optimization algorithms enables the system to satisfy various requirements in applications, such as avoiding collision between the coils and the obstructions within the workspace, placing the coils to optimal positions to enhance energy efficiency, generating wide varieties of magnetic field for complex tasks, and tracking the location of the robot with enlarged workspace. To reach that purpose, a model of the system is built for magnetic field calculation, and a real-time optimization algorithm based on particle swarm optimization combined with a collision detection algorithm is proposed and implemented to calculate optimal positions for coils and at the same time avoid collision. We fabricate a prototype system, named RoboMag, to prove the concept. Simulations and experiments on helical swimmer and soft robot are conducted to evaluate the performance. Compared with two conventional control strategies, the demanded currents for long-distance actuation are reduced by up to 62.7%. The calculation process is conducted in real time and the coils are able to avoid collision with the barriers inside the workspace during actuation. Moreover, generation and steering of a microrobotic swarm is demonstrated, showing the capability of the system in generating programmed dynamic fields for complicated tasks.
AB - In this article, a magnetic actuation system based on three mobile electromagnetic coils is designed and a control strategy for the system is proposed. Enhanced flexibility combined with optimization algorithms enables the system to satisfy various requirements in applications, such as avoiding collision between the coils and the obstructions within the workspace, placing the coils to optimal positions to enhance energy efficiency, generating wide varieties of magnetic field for complex tasks, and tracking the location of the robot with enlarged workspace. To reach that purpose, a model of the system is built for magnetic field calculation, and a real-time optimization algorithm based on particle swarm optimization combined with a collision detection algorithm is proposed and implemented to calculate optimal positions for coils and at the same time avoid collision. We fabricate a prototype system, named RoboMag, to prove the concept. Simulations and experiments on helical swimmer and soft robot are conducted to evaluate the performance. Compared with two conventional control strategies, the demanded currents for long-distance actuation are reduced by up to 62.7%. The calculation process is conducted in real time and the coils are able to avoid collision with the barriers inside the workspace during actuation. Moreover, generation and steering of a microrobotic swarm is demonstrated, showing the capability of the system in generating programmed dynamic fields for complicated tasks.
KW - Magnetic actuation system
KW - medical robots
KW - microrobotics
KW - real-time optimization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111112950&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TMECH.2020.3023003
DO - 10.1109/TMECH.2020.3023003
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85111112950
SN - 1083-4435
VL - 26
SP - 1524
EP - 1535
JO - IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
JF - IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
IS - 3
ER -