Title: Adaptive gain scheduling for rotationally oscillating drill, with low-resolution feedback

Authors: Zhenyu Zhang; Jhon F. Diaz; Nejat Olgac

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Connecticut, 191 Auditorium Rd., Unit 3139, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA ' Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Connecticut, 191 Auditorium Rd., Unit 3139, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA ' Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Connecticut, 191 Auditorium Rd., Unit 3139, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA

Abstract: A challenging control strategy is studied on a novel cellular microinjection technology called the rotationally oscillating drill (Ros-Drill). Ros-Drill is developed primarily for intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). It is an inexpensive device, which creates high-frequency rotational oscillations at the tip of an injection pipette tracking a harmonic motion profile. These rotational oscillations enable the pipette to drill into cell membranes with minimum biological damage. Such a motion control procedure presents no particular difficulty when it uses high-resolution motion sensors. However, coarse spatial resolution in these sensors is enforced due to various limitations (especially from the pricing aspects). They severely constrain the performance and trajectory tracking capabilities are adversely affected. In this paper, we present a new adaptive control scheme to overcome these hurdles. The control is implemented using a commonly available and very economical microcontroller and extremely low-resolution position measurements. First, a continuous control system is used for the core proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller logic. Then, an adaptive, robust and optimal updates over this core logic are developed. We demonstrate via simulations and experiments that the tracking of the harmonic rotational motion is achieved with desirable fidelity.

Keywords: intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection; ICSI; artificial fertilisation; rotationally oscillating drills; Ros-Drill; low-resolution sensors; adaptive control; servo control; cellular microinjection; rotational oscillations; harmonic motion; motion control; microcontrollers; PID control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMS.2013.058512

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 2013 Vol.6 No.5/6, pp.397 - 421

Received: 30 Jul 2012
Accepted: 11 Dec 2012
Published online: 12 Jul 2014 *

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