According to the anti-phase sine current superposition theorem, the orientation, the magnetic flux density, the angular speed and the rotational direction of the spatial universal rotating magnetic field (SURMF) can be controlled within the tri-axial orthogonal square Helmholtz coils (TOSHC). Nevertheless, three coupling direction angles of the normal vector of the SURMF in the Descartes coordinate system cannot be separately controlled, thus the adjustment of the orientation of the SURMF is difficult and the flexibility of the robotic posture control is restricted. For the dimension reduction and the decoupling of control variables, the orthogonal transformation operation theorem of the SURMF is proposed based on two independent rotation angular variables, which employs azimuth and altitude angles as two variables of the three-phase sine current superposition formula derived by the orthogonal rotation inverse transformation. Then the unique control rules of the orientation and the rotational direction of the SURMF are generalized in each spatial quadrant, thus the scanning of the normal vector of the SURMF along the horizontal or vertical direction can be achieved through changing only one variable, which simplifies the control process of the orientation of the SURMF greatly. To validate its feasibility and maneuverability, experiments were conducted in the animal intestine utilizing the innovative dual hemisphere capsule robot (DHCR) with active and passive modes. It was demonstrated that the posture adjustment and the steering rolling locomotion of the DHCR can be realized through single variable control, thus the orthogonal transformation operation theorem makes the control of the orientation of the SURMF convenient and flexible significantly. This breakthrough will lay a foundation for the human-machine interaction control of the SURMF.
ZHANG YongShunYU ZiChunYANG HuiYuanHUANG YunKuiCHEN Jun
Based on the multiple wedge effects, a petal-shaped capsule robot(PCR) is proposed, and the self-centering phenomenon of the PCR is discovered. For investigating the self-centering characteristics, an innovative concept of the instantaneous fluid membrane(FM) thickness, along with the dynamic FM thickness, is proposed; thus a dynamic FM thickness model and a hydrodynamic pressure(HP) model are derived when the PCR axis deviates from the pipe axis under the effect of gravity. A kinematics equation during suspending process in the vertical direction and a swimming kinematics equation in axial direction are derived respectively. Four capsule robots with different eccentricities of the tiles were manufactured and tested, the theoretical and experimental results show that the HP gradient is a fundamental reason for the self-centering phenomenon. The PCR with the self-centering ability can directly avoid the contact with the bottom of the gastrointestinal(GI) tract, achieving the excellent obstacle surmounting ability in the GI complex environment with the less twisted impact on the GI tract, which has a promising application prospect in the GI diagnosis.
Steering control of a capsule robot in curve environment by magnetic navigation is not yet solved completely.A petal-shaped capsule robot with less steering resistance based on multiple wedge effects is presented,and an optimization method with two processes for determining the orientation of a pre-applied universal magnetic spin vector is proposed.To realize quick and non-contact steering swimming,a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method for optimizing the steering driving angle is presented based on two evaluation indexes including the average steering speed and the average steering trajectory deviation,achieving the initial optimal orientation of a universal magnetic spin vector.To further reduce robotic magnetic vibration,a main target method for optimizing its final orientation,which is used for fine adjustment,is employed under the constrains of the magnetic moments.Swimming experimental results in curve pipe verified the effectiveness of the optimization method,which can be effectively used to realize non-contact steering swimming of the petal-shaped robot and reduce its vibration.
For realizing non-contact steering swimming of a capsule robot in curved environment filled with viscous liquid, based on spa- tial orthogonal superposition theorem of alternating magnetic vectors, an innovative physical method is proposed, which em- ploys three-axis orthogonal square Helmholtz coils fed with three phase sine currents to create a universal uniform magnetic spin vector as energy source. According to the antiphase sine current superposition theorem generalized in this paper, an effec- tive control method for successively adjusting the orientation and the rotating direction of the universal magnetic spin vector is proposed. For validating its feasibility and controllability, three-axis Helmholtz coils, power source and an innovative capsule robot prototype were manufactured, experiments were conducted in both spiral pipe and animal intestine. It was demonstrated that the orientation and the rotational direction of the universal uniform-magnetic spin vector can be adjusted successively through digital control and steering swimming of the capsule robot in spiral intestine can be achieved successfully. The breakthrough of the universal rotating uniform-magnetic vector will push forward the development of modern physics and biomedical engineering
ZHANG YongShunWANG NaDU ChunYuSUN YingWANG DianLong
