The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Magnetic field assisted milli-scale robotic assembly machine: an approach to massively parallel swarm robotic automation systems
Author:	Liu, Yan
View Online:	njit-etd2018-069 (xiii, 97 pages ~ 3.8 MB pdf)
Department:	Committee for the Interdisciplinary Program in Materials Science and Engineering
Degree:	Doctor of Philosophy
Program:	Materials Science and Engineering
Document Type:	Dissertation
Advisory Committee:	Ravindra, N. M. (Committee chair) Nadimpalli, Siva P.V. (Committee member) Lee, Eon Soo (Committee member) Jaffe, Michael (Committee member) Fiory, Anthony (Committee member)
Date:	2018-12
Keywords:	Magnetic field Mill-tweezer Parallel assembly Swarm robotic system
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	The vision of highly parallel, automated manufacturing systems that can build macroscopic products by heterogeneous assembly of many small devices will have a major impact in manufacturing. In this study, a novel milli-scale robotic assembly machine with parallel capabilities, assisted with programmable magnetic field, is developed. The machine prototype consists of a 16x16 array of electromagnets. The dimensions of the electromagnets are 5mm high with an inner diameter of 1.1mm and outer diameter of 2.5mm. All the electromagnets are driven by a 16x16 array of H-Bridges, and an Arduino microcontroller is used to control and program the arrays. Using the machine to manipulate up to nine milli-scale robots simultaneously is demonstrated. The robot is designed with a 3x3 electromagnets array to operate and it consists of two parts: a polycarbonate chassis and five grade N42 NdFeB permanent magnets located at four corners and center of the chassis. The capability of pick-and-place millimeter size devices, such as SMD (Surface Mounted Device) LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), specifically 0805 LEDs, is demonstrated by using the prototype machine. A milli-scale tweezer is designed using AutoCAD Fusion 360 and simulated with COMSOL Multiphysics. The milli-scale tweezer is fabricated using a home-built Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine. The tweezer is subsequently mounted to the robots. For proof-of-concept, simultaneous operation for pick-and-place two LEDs is carried out by two milli robots. Furthermore, an 8x8 LED array is assembled by operating a single robot, which proves the potential capability of assembling an LED screen with the presented technology.