Ph.D
October 2021 : Surface Tension Forces for Compact Microrobotics
Pushing the boundary of robot miniaturisation could answer the need for submillimetric surgical tools with
less side effects. It would also allow innovative intervention as well as new treatment by manipulating cells inmicrofluidic environment (i.e. closed and submillimeter fluid networks used for research in biology). To make these applications possible, microactuators need to be compact with footprints inferior to a millimetre cube.However classical actuators lose their efficiency at small scale and different driving mechanisms have to be investigated. This thesis will answer this need by investigating the use of surface tensions forces, which becomes predominant at small scale, as a base of the actuation. This will allow the design and control of microactuators with better compactness while maintaining the high degree of freedom number required for complex tasks.
contact : Antoine Barbot and Aude Bolopion for more info (antoine.barbot@femto-st.fr aude.bolopion@femto-st.fr). Fell also free to forward to anyone that could be interested