Bilateral Macro–Micro Teleoperation Using Magnetic Levitation

This paper introduces a novel magnetic-haptic micromanipulation platform with promising potential for extensive biological and biomedical applications. The platform has three basic subsystems: a magnetic untethered microrobotic system, a haptic device, and a scaled bilateral teleoperation system. A mathematical force model of the magnetic propulsion mechanism is developed, and used to design PID controllers for magnetic actuation mechanism. A gain-switching position–position teleoperation scheme is employed for this haptic application. In experimental verifications, a human operator controls the motion of the microrobot via a master manipulator for dexterous micromanipulation tasks. The operator can feel force during microdomain tasks if the microrobot encounters a stiff environment. The effect of hard contact is fed back to the operator's hand in a 20 mm × 20 mm × 30 mm working envelope of the proposed platform. Conducting several experiments under different conditions, rms of position tracking errors varied from 20 to 40 μm.