This paper presents a planar electromagnetic conveyor for a microfactory. The uniqueness of the conveyor design lies in its arrangement of overlapped 2D mesh coils in matrix configuration that enables to drive a mobile part over long strokes. The conveyor architecture includes a fixed part which consists of 5 $\times$ 5 matrix design that has been fabricated on a multi-layer printed circuit board. An analytical model that takes into account the electromagnetic and friction effects has been developed. A conveyor prototype has been fabricated and experimentally characterized in open loop control. Linear and planar motions, positioning repeatability error, straightness error and rotation have been experimentally measured. From experimental results, the proposed architecture enables long linear displacement strokes ( $\leq$ 70 mm) and rotation ( $\geq$ $\pm$ 12.37°). In addition, a 12 mm/s speed can be achieved for the mobile part at a nominal current of 0.8 A.

This paper describes the design, fabrication, integration, characterization, and demonstration of a novel flexible double-sided curvature sensor array for use in soft robotics. The paper explores the performance and potential applications of a piezoresistive sensor array consisting of four gold strain gauges on a flexible polyimide (PI) substrate arranged in a Wheatstone bridge configuration. Multiple sensor strips were arranged like the fingers of a hand. Integrating Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) foils alongside the fingers was explored to mimic a human hand-gripping motion controlled with temperature, while curvature sensor array strips measure the resulting finger shapes. Moreover, object sensing in a flexible granular material gripper was demonstrated. The sensors were embedded within Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to enhance their tactile feel and adhesive properties. The findings of this study are promising for future applications, particularly in robotics and prosthetics, as the ability to accurately mimic human hand movements and reconstruct sensor surfaces paves the way for robotic hand functionality.

This paper presents a 3D digital electromagnetic actuator able to reach 12 discrete positions distributed in three-dimensional space. The mobile part of this actuator includes a cuboid permanent magnet fixed in a hexagonal casing. The mobile part is able to reach six discrete positions in xy-plane at level z$_{1}$ and the remaining six discrete positions at level z$_{1}$. The switching of the mobile part in xy-plane is achieved by injecting currents in the fixed planar wires situated beneath it. The actuator design integrates a coil to switch the mobile part between two predefined levels in z-axis. To maintain the mobile part at a discrete position without energy consumption, six fixed cylindrical permanent magnets are placed around the mobile part. To design the actuator, a model has been developed and is presented in this paper. Rapid prototyping approach (laser cutting) is used to fabricate the actuator prototype. The maximum and the minimum strokes in xy-plane are between 0.5 to 1.0 mm while along z-axis the actuator is able to perform a stroke of 1.0 mm. Experiments have been conducted on the prototype to validate the proposed design and the 3D actuation. The performance characterization has been conduced and the experimental and the simulated results have been compared.

In this paper, a remote optical method to localize and track a mobile micro-conveyor is presented. The principle of the proposed method consists of detecting a laser beam that is reflected by the micro-conveyor and analyzing this optically received signal to obtain the corresponding positions of the micro-conveyor. The main elements of the system are a corner cube retroreflector, a steering mirror, and a beam splitter. The corner cube retroreflector is placed onto the micro-conveyor in order to allow the optical signal to be reflected back in its incident direction. The steering mirror aids in scanning the surface with the laser. The beam splitter is used to guide the reflected laser beam towards a quadrant photodiode, which interprets the optical signal to corresponding output voltages. In this work, a micro-conveyor is successfully localized and tracked with a resolution better than 55 μm, over a surface of 100 mm×100 mm, with a displacement velocity of 30mm/s.

In this work a planar electromagnetic motion device is presented for linear displacement. The motion forces are generated by the interaction between the currents in planar electrical drive coil, placed beneath the adjacently inverted magnets array with an insulating glass layer of 170 μm thickness in between. To achieve linear displacement in a plane, four adjacently inverted magnets arrays are assembled orthogonally to a micro-fabricated silicon cross structure and four planar electrical drive coils are assembled in an aluminum platform. The first prototype of this planar device is able to perform linear displacement in XY-plane with a positional repeatability error of 2.54 μm and 1.32 μm along X- and Y-axis respectively. The device is able to perform in free and self guided mode with a straightness error of 15.13 ± 5.64 μm and 3.02 ± 1.69 μm respectively.