A Modified Resistance Model for Magnetic Honeycomb Robots to Navigate in Low Reynolds Number Fluids
Leyao Zou, Shihao Ma, Yi Liu, Xinyang Dong, Ziqing Zhou, Chun Ouyang, Zhongxue Gan
Abstract
In recent years, magnetically controlled microrobots have garnered significant attention. This paper presents the H-robot, a self-designed microrobot featuring an innovative structure. The H-robot features a honeycomb porous spherical design specifically engineered to enhance cargo capacity. A new dynamic model for this structure has been developed for low Reynolds number fluid environments, along with a robust backstepping sliding mode control (RBSMC) strategy. Experiments were conducted in a calibrated magnetic field generated by a magnetic field generator to achieve precise motion control. The results demonstrate that the H-robot accurately tracks standard trajectories, with root mean square errors (RMSE) of <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$9.09 \times 10^{-4} \mathbf{~ m}$</tex> for the Number-8 path and <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$8.29 \times 10^{-4} \mathbf{~ m}$</tex> for the S-shaped path. Additionally, the proposed resistance model enhances tracking accuracy by 73.61% compared to traditional models, effectively adjusting the dynamic behavior of the H-robot in low Reynolds number fluids and significantly improving its motion performance. Finally, path planning experiments in a maze demonstrate the H-robot's ability to navigate and avoid obstacles.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{icra2025_amodifiedresista,
title = {A Modified Resistance Model for Magnetic Honeycomb Robots to Navigate in Low Reynolds Number Fluids},
author = {Leyao Zou and Shihao Ma and Yi Liu and Xinyang Dong and Ziqing Zhou and Chun Ouyang and Zhongxue Gan},
booktitle = {ICRA 2025},
year = {2025}
}