Pushing controller for micromanipulation of objects using magnetic robots

Micromanipulation of objects using a magnetic robot is critical for various applications, such as micro-assemblies. However, manipulation skills remain a significant challenge due to the nonlinear interaction between the robot and the object. The effects of pushing can vary from one object to another, depending on how intense the contact is, according to the contact point, surface properties, and so on. This paper presents a pushing controller for micromanipulation using Uncalibrated Visual Servo as robot control. The controller is based on a composite of specific motions or behaviours provided to the robot to maneuver an object. The main advantage of using the proposed controller is its independence from both the robot pusher and object configurations, making it adaptable. Experiments performed on a real system in different scenario show the effectiveness of the proposed controller. The mean absolute error (MAE) is 1.22% of the robot body length for the square trajectory and 1.75% for the circular trajectory.