IMECE2011-64160 POSITION CONTROL OF A MAGNETICALLY LEVITATED ROBOT BASED ON MAGNETIC FLUX MEASUREMENT IMECE2011-64160

ABSTRACT Magnetic actuation has opened a new horizon in biological/biomedical applications. A novel magnetic actuation platform has been developed at Maglev Microrobotics Laboratory, University of Waterloo. In the previous work, laser sensors were used for positioning the levitated microrobot. This technique can be used only in transparent environment. In this paper, for applications in an enclosed environment, which may not be transparent, a novel position estimation method was proposed. The proposed method uses hall sensors, mounted on the disk pole-piece. The hall sensors' optimal installation position has been investigated, and a function which relates hall sensors' output and the position of robot was derived. Based on this function, position control of horizontal axis using hall sensors in place of laser sensor can be achieved. Usability of two dimensional controls in horizontal axis without laser sensors will be experimentally validated as future work of this research. Intoroduction The past decade has seen the rapid advancement of microrobotics technology to fulfill the needs of various micro and nano domain fields. Among all proposed microrobotic methods, magnetic levitation has opened a new horizon in biological/biomedical applications, because this method provides noncontact manipulations in bio-compatible environments. Magnetic levitation system can be divided into two wide categories: small magnetic gap systems and large magnetic gap systems. In the small magnetic gap systems, the manipulated object cannot be sufficiently separated from the drive unit for untethered mobile robot applications A novel high precision magnetic actuation platfor