Planar Two Degree-of-Freedom Legs for Walking Microrobots

This work presents initial progress towards an autonomous integrated walking microrobot. Design goals include driving a 1 mN (100 mg), 1 cm device at speeds on the order of 1 cm/s over smooth surfaces. A relatively low complexity MEMS fabrication process is used to create two degree-of-freedom legs to enable a walking gait. Test structures fabricated in this process characterize leg designs and geometries, demonstrating the feasibility of such a microrobot system. A tri-fold flexure based leg can lift a 250 μN weight 5.5 μm with a 70 μN, 15μm input actuation, while a hinge based leg can effectively lift a 250 μN weight 6.5 μm with a 35 μN, 15μm input actuation.