Design and Development of a New Rotating Electromagnetic Field Generation System for Driving Microrobots

This article presents the design, optimization, and testing of a new rotating electromagnetic field generation system for actuating magnetic microrobots. Its unique feature lies in that the proposed six-coil electromagnetic actuation system produces a uniform rotating magnetic field with a large 3-D workspace, which is enabled by conducting an architectural optimization of the system in consideration of both electric issues and geometry constraints. To maintain a low working temperature, each coil is fabricated with silicone grease for filling the gap among the copper wires and integrated with a water cooling fan for reducing the effect of coil heating. An analytical model is established to determine the dominant structural parameters, which are optimally tuned by resorting to genetic algorithm (GA) to achieve the best actuation performance. A prototype magnetic field generation system is developed for experimental testing. Experimental studies are carried out by driving various magnetic microrobots, including helical microswimmers and microparticles. Results indicate that the developed system can effectively actuate the microrobots with precision motion tracking, validating the effectiveness of the developed rotating magnetic field generation system.