Ferrofluid Droplet Robot Manipulation Using Rule-Based Control Strategy

Magnetically controllable ferrofluid droplet robots (FDR) can reach narrow and complex areas owing to their soft structures. Therefore, they have the potential to be used in minimally invasive robotic applications. In this study, we focused on the two-dimensional (2-D) manipulation of an FDR in an immiscible secondary liquid domain. For this purpose, an electromagnetic actuator is designed with a two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF). Based on visual feedback, a rule-based control strategy is implemented to manipulate the ferrofluid through a given path. To test the performance of the system an experiment is designed in which the FDR follows a rectangular path. The results indicated that the average and maximum tracking errors are 0.8 % and 5.9 %, respectively.