Wireless flow-powered miniature robot capable of traversing tubular structures
Data files
Mar 18, 2024 version files 1.59 MB
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README.md
8.88 KB
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SupplementaryData.zip
1.58 MB
Abstract
Wireless millimeter-scale robots capable of navigating through fluid-flowing tubular structures hold substantial potential for inspection, maintenance, or repair use in nuclear, industrial, and medical applications. However, prevalent reliance on external power constrains their operational range and applicable environments. Alternatives with onboard powering must trade off size, functionality, and operation duration. Here, we propose a wireless millimeter-scale wheeled robot capable of using environmental flows to power and actuate its long-distance locomotion through complex pipelines. The flow-powering module can convert flow energy into mechanical energy, achieving an impeller speed of up to 9595 revolutions per minute, accompanied by an output power density of 11.7 watts per cubic meter and an efficiency of 33.7%. A miniature gearbox module can further transmit the converted mechanical energy into the robot’s locomotion system, allowing the robot to move against water flow at an average rate of up to 1.05 meters per second. The robot’s motion status (moving against/with flow or pausing) can be switched using an external magnetic field or an onboard mechanical regulator, contingent upon different proposed control designs. Additionally, we design kirigami-based soft wheels for adaptive locomotion. The robot can move against flows of various substances within pipes featuring complex geometries and diverse materials. Solely powered by flow, the robot can transport cylindrical payloads with a diameter of up to 55% of the pipe’s diameter and carry devices, such as an endoscopic camera for pipeline inspection, a wireless temperature sensor for environmental temperature monitoring, and a leak-stopper shell for infrastructure maintenance.
README: Wireless flow-powered miniature robot capable of traversing tubular structures
Supplementary data for Chong Hong et al., "Wireless flow-powered miniature robot capable of traversing tubular structures", Science Robotics, 9(88), eadi5155, 2024.
GENERAL INFORMATION:
Author information:
Corresponding authors
Name: Wenqi Hu, Metin Sitti
Institution: Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
Email: wenqi@is.mpg.de, sitti@is.mpg.deDate of data collection: 2022-2023
Geographic location of data collection: Stuttgart, Germany
FILE OVERVIEW:
File 1 Name: Figure 2D.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 1 Description: Data of simulated and experimental mean impeller rotational speed with different (i) fin amount and (ii) fin length.
File 2 Name: Figure 2E.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 2 Description: Data of the simulated mean impeller rotational speed with different (i) fin thickness, (ii) fin-housing gap, and (iii) fin amount and fin length.
File 3 Name: Figure 2F.xlsx (Date: 2022-2023)
File 3 Description: Data of the simulated and experimental mean impeller rotational speed, output power, and energy conversion efficiency with different (i) flow rates and (ii) load torque.
File 4 Name: Figure 3C.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 4 Description: Data depicting the influence of wheel design parameters of (i) p_d, (ii) p_n, and (iii) p_t on average compression force and fluctuation rate η_wheel at different compression displacement ∆y.
File 5 Name: Figure 3D.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 5 Description: Data of simulated and experimental (i) average compression force F_n and (ii) fluctuation rate η_wheel under different compression displacement ∆y for wheels with various values of p_d.
File 6 Name: Figure 4A.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 6 Description: Data of robot locomotion speed characterization at different water flow rates in pipes with diameters of 10.5 mm, 10.9 mm, and 11.3 mm.
File 7 Name: Figure 6A.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 7 Description: Data of the robot locomotion speed with different load length l_load and load diameter d_load.
File 8 Name: Figure S2C.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 8 Description: Data of the time-history impeller rotational speed for different fin amounts and fin lengths in the simulations.
File 9 Name: Figure S2D.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 9 Description: Data depicting the effect of opening ratio r_open on mean impeller rotational speed.
File 10 Name: Figure S3C.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 10 Description: Data of the simulated magnetic gradient force F_g with different distance d_m between the two magnets.
File 11 Name: Figure S4A.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 11 Description: Data of the wheel normal force F_n with different p_d for ∆y=0.2 and 0.35 mm.
File 12 Name: Figure S4B.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 12 Description: Data of the wheel normal force F_n with different p_t for ∆y=0.2 and 0.35 mm.
File 13 Name: Figure S4C.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 13 Description: Data of the wheel normal force F_n with different p_n for ∆y=0.2 and 0.35 mm.
File 14 Name: Figure S6E.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 14 Description: Data of the measured normal force F_n with Δx for wheels with different pd under different Δy.
File 15 Name: Figure S6G.xlsx (Date: 2022)
File 15 Description: Data of the measured normal force F_n for a kirigami wheel and a solid soft wheel at a fixed ∆y of 0.35 mm.
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION
Methods for data collection or generation and methods used for data processing are detailed in Materials and Methods within the associated article.
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure 2D.xlsx
Variable list:
Fin amount: Amount of fins in the designed impeller
Fin length: Length of fins in the designed impeller; mm
Mean impeller rotational speed: Mean rotational speed of the impeller during the steady state; rpm
Repetition: Experimentally measured mean impeller rotational speed for each repetition; rpm
Mean: Mean value of the experimental mean impeller rotational speed for 5 repetitions; rpm
Std (Standard deviation): Standard deviation of the experimental mean impeller rotational speed for 5 repetitions; rpm
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure 2E.xlsx
Variable list:
Thickness of fins: Thickness of fins in the designed impeller; μm
Fin-housing gap: the gap between the fin and the housing wall; μm
Fin amount: Amount of fins in the designed impeller
Fin length: Length of fins in the designed impeller; mm
Mean impeller rotational speed: Mean rotational speed of the impeller during the steady state; rpm
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure 2F.xlsx
Variable list:
Flow rate: Mean flow rate within the pipe; m/s
Standard deviation of flow rate: Standard deviation of the experimental flow rate within the pipe; m/s
Mean impeller rotational speed: Mean rotational speed of the impeller during the steady state; rpm
Standard deviation of impeller speed: Standard deviation of the experimental mean impeller rotational speed; rpm
Mean output power: Mean output power of the impeller; W
Standard deviation of power: Standard deviation of the experimental mean output power of the impeller; W
Load torque: Load torque applied to the impeller; μNm
Standard deviation of load torque: Standard deviation of the experimental load torque applied to the impeller; μNm
Repetition: Experimentally measured raw data for each repetition;
Mean: Mean value of the experimentally measured raw data for 5 repetitions;
Std (Standard deviation): Standard deviation of the experimentally measured raw data for 5 repetitions;
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure 3C.xlsx
Variable list:
∆y: Compression displacement of the wheel; mm
p_t: The thickness-to-diameter ratio of rings in the wheel
p_n: The normalized quantity of rings in the wheel
p_d: The diameter ratio of rings between adjacent layers in the wheel
Average force F_n: The average compression force acting on the wheel during one rotational cycle; mN
η_wheel: The fluctuation rate of the time-history compression force during one rotational cycle; %
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure 3D.xlsx
Variable list:
∆y: Compression displacement of the wheel; mm
p_d: The diameter ratio of rings between adjacent layers in the wheel
Average F_n: The average compression force acting on the wheel during one rotational cycle; mN
η_wheel: The fluctuation rate of the time-history compression force during one rotational cycle; %
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure 4A.xlsx
Variable list:
Flow rate: Mean flow rate within the pipe; m/s
Robot velocity against flow: The robot's locomotion velocity when moving against the water flow within the pipe; mm/s
Robot velocity with flow: The robot's locomotion velocity when moving with the water flow within the pipe; mm/s
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure 6A.xlsx
Variable list:
d_load: Diameter of the cylindrical payload; mm
l_load: Length of the cylindrical payload; mm
Speed: Robot's locomotion speed against the water flow when carrying payload; mm/s
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure S2C.xlsx
Variable list:
N_fin: Number of fins in the designed impeller
l_fin: Length of fins in the designed impeller; mm
Time: Moment in the simulation; s
Impeller rotational speed: The time-history rotational speed of the impeller in the simulation; rpm
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure S2D.xlsx
Variable list:
r_open: opening ratio of the housing; %
Mean impeller rotational speed: Mean rotational speed of the impeller during the steady state; rpm
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure S3C.xlsx
Variable list:
d_m: The distance between the two magnets; mm
F_g: Magnetic gradient force; mN
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure S4A.xlsx
Variable list:
∆y: Compression displacement of the wheel; mm
∆x: Horizontal displacement of the plate; mm
p_d: The diameter ratio of rings between adjacent layers in the wheel
F_n: The time-history normal force of the wheel; mN
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure S4B.xlsx
Variable list:
∆y: Compression displacement of the wheel; mm
∆x: Horizontal displacement of the plate; mm
p_t: The thickness-to-diameter ratio of rings in the wheel
F_n: The time-history normal force of the wheel; mN
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure S4C.xlsx
Variable list:
∆y: Compression displacement of the wheel; mm
∆x: Horizontal displacement of the plate; mm
p_n: The normalized quantity of rings in the wheel
F_n: The time-history normal force of the wheel; mN
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure S6E.xlsx
Variable list:
∆y: Compression displacement of the wheel; mm
∆x: Horizontal displacement of the plate; mm
F_n: The time-history normal force of the wheel; mN
DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Figure S6G.xlsx
Variable list:
∆y: Compression displacement of the wheel; mm
F_n: The time-history normal force of the wheel; mN