Control System Design for the Capsubot

In this paper, a capsule type robot, named the Capsubot, is designed. The robot has no moving part outside of its body, no legs and no wheel. Its motion is purely based on its internal force and friction with the environments. A four-step motion pattern is proposed. A minimal energy solution is stated. A prototype capsule robot, consisting a plastic tube with three independently driven copper coils and a NiFeB magnet rod which can move inside the tube, is built. It is essentially a motion magnet linear motor. The motion generation results are verified experimentally