Dual-stylus-arm scratch drive micro-robots controlled by a communication channel

A novel approach to controlling the mobility of MEMS SDA Scratch-Drive-Actuator (SDA) micro-robots is presented. The operation of MEMS SDA has been well demonstrated by the research of Donald et al.. An improvement of adding an additional stylus arm to control left and right rotation as well as using both arms to halt was presented in. In order to eliminate the complication of different stress curling to control multiple micro-robots, an alternative solution of controlling electrical connection between parallel plate body and stylus arms is presented. A Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) was developed and applied which allowed a micro-robot to move towards a target using global communication channel to guide the robot's path.