| The NanoWalker project aims at developing a nanofactory, composed of a 100 mobile wireless miniature robots fleet. Each robot moves around with a three-leg structure. The legs are in fact piezoelectric ceramic tubes. To perform its tasks, every robot requires a proper power supply. However, especially for wireless mobile robots, it is not convenient to overload them with batteries, which have a few drawbacks. For example, they provide the robot a limited autonomy and imply an additional weight to be carried on. These constraints are especially true for a miniature robot. In order to optimize their efficiency, it is worthwhile investigating alternative power supply sources, such as extracting energy from the environment.; A power supply solution without constraints (in terms of weight, motion and noise) is a cornerstone of the NanoWalker project.; An arcing prevention circuit is developed. The selected approach consists of storing in the robot enough energy to survive a small period of time, during which motion will take place without being electrically connected to the power floor. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
