IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 2011
... 58, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2011 1 An Optically Programmable SoC for an Autonomous Mobile mm3-Sized ... more ... 58, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2011 1 An Optically Programmable SoC for an Autonomous Mobile mm3-Sized Microrobot Raimon Casanova, Member, IEEE, Anna Arbat, Student Member, IEEE, Oscar Alonso, Andreu Sanuy, Joan Canals, and Angel Dieguez, Member, IEEE ...
2017 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC), 2017
The design of the detection system for nondestructive analysis of MOX pellets by the accurate mea... more The design of the detection system for nondestructive analysis of MOX pellets by the accurate measurement of the Pu/U ratio in trace concentrations (few %) by means of XRF spectrometry is presented. The parameters of multiple Peltier-cooled compact CdTe detectors are optimized through systematic experimental characterization, leading to a FWHM resolution better than 1 keV at 122 keV $(3.2 \mu \mathrm{s}$ shaping time) stable for days of operation. Given the small separation between the peaks to be quantified (~9 keV) and the low concentration of Pu, accurate spectrum analysis is mandatory. Acquired spectra are processed by an algorithm that subtracts the background and fits the peaks with a combination of Gaussian and exponential tail functions, required to model the slow collection of holes in these detectors. The lack of calibrated Pu/U samples has been addressed by realizing mixtures of Bi/Pb powders (with similar spectral separation) and by creating a virtual spectrum by measuri...
2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2009
Microrobots were proposed more than 20 years ago but it has proven challenging to integrate a pow... more Microrobots were proposed more than 20 years ago but it has proven challenging to integrate a power system and actuators into some few mm3. There have been some attempts to create an autonomous mobile microrobot but any has been successful. Moreover, the proposed microrobots were simply mobile platforms incapable of sensing its environment and taking decisions. I-SWARM has been designed
2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2007
This paper presents a system on chip (SoC) designed specifically to control a mm3-sized microrobo... more This paper presents a system on chip (SoC) designed specifically to control a mm3-sized microrobot called I-SWARM. The robot is intended to be part of a colony of 1000 members for studying swarm behavior in real time with real robots. The SoC offers a well-suited hardware platform to run multi-agent systems software. The SoC enables control of movement, communications and sensing. It is a platform where run multi-agent system software. With these capabilities, the robot is able for example to avoiding collisions, perform cooperative tasks, share information and, of course, solve different swarm scenarios and more complex tasks. The SoC has been fabricated with a 0.13 mum ultra low power CMOS process of STMicroelectronics and consumes less than 1.5 mW.
The objective of this paper is to present the design and validation of a cantilever-based contact... more The objective of this paper is to present the design and validation of a cantilever-based contact sensing system for a micro-robot. Key elements of the fabrication process of the sensor and the electrical model extraction used to design the control electronics are described. The architecture used for the sensor corresponds to a micro-cantilever fabricated of piezoelectric–polyvinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene stacked in a
2005 IEEE Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications, 2005
ABSTRACT A specific integrated controller for a wireless and autonomous microrobot of 1 cm3 is pr... more ABSTRACT A specific integrated controller for a wireless and autonomous microrobot of 1 cm3 is presented. The microrobot is equipped with an atomic force microscopy (AFM) probe, a syringe or a gripper to develop cooperative tasks in biological experiences. Its main functionality and the controller design is focused on nanomicroscopy and cellular manipulation. The circuit manages the microrobot locomotion unit and its tools with nanometric resolution.
2007 18th European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design, 2007
ABSTRACT This paper presents the electronics for the resonance control of a resonance contact sen... more ABSTRACT This paper presents the electronics for the resonance control of a resonance contact sensor. The interface consists in an analog front-end and a digital control unit, fabricated in a CMOS standard technology of 0.13 mum from STM. The sensor is a SMART multi-layer piezo-polymer micro-cantilever working in resonance mode. The sensing is done using an electrical isolated piezo-layer of the microstructure. For the design of the electronics an electrical model of the sensor has been developed. The model is described in detail in the paper.
2007 50th Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2007
This paper is focused on the power features of a ultra-low power SoC for 3 times 3 times 3 mm3 mi... more This paper is focused on the power features of a ultra-low power SoC for 3 times 3 times 3 mm3 microrobot. The SoC is based on the 8051 microcontroller and fabricated with a 0.13 mum ultra-low leakage CMOS process of STMicroelectronics. Because of the very restrictively power constraints, less than 1 mW, we have added a Power Management Unit (PMU)
2007 50th Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2007
In this paper a low power transceiver for short-range IR-communications between robots is describ... more In this paper a low power transceiver for short-range IR-communications between robots is described. The mm3- sized robots will be deployed in an arena of A4 sheet size with controlled illumination conditions. The transceiver can manage variations of background light from point to point in the arena, interferences induced by other robots and deals with the inter-robot distance, i.e., the amplitude of the signal to be detected.
2007 14th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems, 2007
ABSTRACT This paper reports on the design and implementation of a low-voltage, low-power Wake-Up ... more ABSTRACT This paper reports on the design and implementation of a low-voltage, low-power Wake-Up circuit consisting on a Power-on-Reset module and a clock generator. No external components are used neither for the Power-on- Reset nor for the clock generation. The clock generator module is temperature compensated by applying a current limiting technique. The Wake-Up circuit has been fabricated in a 130 nm ultra-low power technology of STMicroelectronics in an area of 40 ÎĽm times 40 ÎĽm.
2007 IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2007
This paper is focused on the main issues of designing a SoC for a completely autonomous mm3-sized... more This paper is focused on the main issues of designing a SoC for a completely autonomous mm3-sized microrobot. It is described how all the electronics are included in a unique chip, the special requirements in the assembly process and how the hard constraints in power consumption are managed. Power in the robot is delivered by solar cells mounted on top
2005 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2005
A specific integrated controller for a wireless and autonomous microrobot of 1cm3 is presented. T... more A specific integrated controller for a wireless and autonomous microrobot of 1cm3 is presented. The robot is equipped with an AFM probe, an injection needle, a gripper, or a micropipette. Hence, its main functionality and the controller design is focused on nanomicroscopy and cellular manipulation. The circuit manages the robot locomotion unit and its tools with nanometric resolution. Communication is
2009 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers, 2009
A microrobot is a robot under a few cubic millimeters in size. Miniaturizing its components, powe... more A microrobot is a robot under a few cubic millimeters in size. Miniaturizing its components, power source, sensors and actuators, has proven challenging. As a consequence, few autonomous microrobots have been reported until recently. These are simple mobile platforms, without sensors on board. Their electronics are basically focused on motion. I-SWARM is the first autonomous microrobot, 23mm3 and 70mg, designed to move, sense, take decisions, communicate and work in cooperation with other l-SWARM micro- robots. The area and weight of a microrobot are critical and limits the use of off-the-shelf components. So, it is required to integrate in a unique chip all the electronics, including the clock source, the POR and the voltage regulators.
IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 2011
... 58, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2011 1 An Optically Programmable SoC for an Autonomous Mobile mm3-Sized ... more ... 58, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2011 1 An Optically Programmable SoC for an Autonomous Mobile mm3-Sized Microrobot Raimon Casanova, Member, IEEE, Anna Arbat, Student Member, IEEE, Oscar Alonso, Andreu Sanuy, Joan Canals, and Angel Dieguez, Member, IEEE ...
2017 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC), 2017
The design of the detection system for nondestructive analysis of MOX pellets by the accurate mea... more The design of the detection system for nondestructive analysis of MOX pellets by the accurate measurement of the Pu/U ratio in trace concentrations (few %) by means of XRF spectrometry is presented. The parameters of multiple Peltier-cooled compact CdTe detectors are optimized through systematic experimental characterization, leading to a FWHM resolution better than 1 keV at 122 keV $(3.2 \mu \mathrm{s}$ shaping time) stable for days of operation. Given the small separation between the peaks to be quantified (~9 keV) and the low concentration of Pu, accurate spectrum analysis is mandatory. Acquired spectra are processed by an algorithm that subtracts the background and fits the peaks with a combination of Gaussian and exponential tail functions, required to model the slow collection of holes in these detectors. The lack of calibrated Pu/U samples has been addressed by realizing mixtures of Bi/Pb powders (with similar spectral separation) and by creating a virtual spectrum by measuri...
2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2009
Microrobots were proposed more than 20 years ago but it has proven challenging to integrate a pow... more Microrobots were proposed more than 20 years ago but it has proven challenging to integrate a power system and actuators into some few mm3. There have been some attempts to create an autonomous mobile microrobot but any has been successful. Moreover, the proposed microrobots were simply mobile platforms incapable of sensing its environment and taking decisions. I-SWARM has been designed
2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2007
This paper presents a system on chip (SoC) designed specifically to control a mm3-sized microrobo... more This paper presents a system on chip (SoC) designed specifically to control a mm3-sized microrobot called I-SWARM. The robot is intended to be part of a colony of 1000 members for studying swarm behavior in real time with real robots. The SoC offers a well-suited hardware platform to run multi-agent systems software. The SoC enables control of movement, communications and sensing. It is a platform where run multi-agent system software. With these capabilities, the robot is able for example to avoiding collisions, perform cooperative tasks, share information and, of course, solve different swarm scenarios and more complex tasks. The SoC has been fabricated with a 0.13 mum ultra low power CMOS process of STMicroelectronics and consumes less than 1.5 mW.
The objective of this paper is to present the design and validation of a cantilever-based contact... more The objective of this paper is to present the design and validation of a cantilever-based contact sensing system for a micro-robot. Key elements of the fabrication process of the sensor and the electrical model extraction used to design the control electronics are described. The architecture used for the sensor corresponds to a micro-cantilever fabricated of piezoelectric–polyvinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene stacked in a
2005 IEEE Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications, 2005
ABSTRACT A specific integrated controller for a wireless and autonomous microrobot of 1 cm3 is pr... more ABSTRACT A specific integrated controller for a wireless and autonomous microrobot of 1 cm3 is presented. The microrobot is equipped with an atomic force microscopy (AFM) probe, a syringe or a gripper to develop cooperative tasks in biological experiences. Its main functionality and the controller design is focused on nanomicroscopy and cellular manipulation. The circuit manages the microrobot locomotion unit and its tools with nanometric resolution.
2007 18th European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design, 2007
ABSTRACT This paper presents the electronics for the resonance control of a resonance contact sen... more ABSTRACT This paper presents the electronics for the resonance control of a resonance contact sensor. The interface consists in an analog front-end and a digital control unit, fabricated in a CMOS standard technology of 0.13 mum from STM. The sensor is a SMART multi-layer piezo-polymer micro-cantilever working in resonance mode. The sensing is done using an electrical isolated piezo-layer of the microstructure. For the design of the electronics an electrical model of the sensor has been developed. The model is described in detail in the paper.
2007 50th Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2007
This paper is focused on the power features of a ultra-low power SoC for 3 times 3 times 3 mm3 mi... more This paper is focused on the power features of a ultra-low power SoC for 3 times 3 times 3 mm3 microrobot. The SoC is based on the 8051 microcontroller and fabricated with a 0.13 mum ultra-low leakage CMOS process of STMicroelectronics. Because of the very restrictively power constraints, less than 1 mW, we have added a Power Management Unit (PMU)
2007 50th Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2007
In this paper a low power transceiver for short-range IR-communications between robots is describ... more In this paper a low power transceiver for short-range IR-communications between robots is described. The mm3- sized robots will be deployed in an arena of A4 sheet size with controlled illumination conditions. The transceiver can manage variations of background light from point to point in the arena, interferences induced by other robots and deals with the inter-robot distance, i.e., the amplitude of the signal to be detected.
2007 14th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems, 2007
ABSTRACT This paper reports on the design and implementation of a low-voltage, low-power Wake-Up ... more ABSTRACT This paper reports on the design and implementation of a low-voltage, low-power Wake-Up circuit consisting on a Power-on-Reset module and a clock generator. No external components are used neither for the Power-on- Reset nor for the clock generation. The clock generator module is temperature compensated by applying a current limiting technique. The Wake-Up circuit has been fabricated in a 130 nm ultra-low power technology of STMicroelectronics in an area of 40 ÎĽm times 40 ÎĽm.
2007 IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2007
This paper is focused on the main issues of designing a SoC for a completely autonomous mm3-sized... more This paper is focused on the main issues of designing a SoC for a completely autonomous mm3-sized microrobot. It is described how all the electronics are included in a unique chip, the special requirements in the assembly process and how the hard constraints in power consumption are managed. Power in the robot is delivered by solar cells mounted on top
2005 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2005
A specific integrated controller for a wireless and autonomous microrobot of 1cm3 is presented. T... more A specific integrated controller for a wireless and autonomous microrobot of 1cm3 is presented. The robot is equipped with an AFM probe, an injection needle, a gripper, or a micropipette. Hence, its main functionality and the controller design is focused on nanomicroscopy and cellular manipulation. The circuit manages the robot locomotion unit and its tools with nanometric resolution. Communication is
2009 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers, 2009
A microrobot is a robot under a few cubic millimeters in size. Miniaturizing its components, powe... more A microrobot is a robot under a few cubic millimeters in size. Miniaturizing its components, power source, sensors and actuators, has proven challenging. As a consequence, few autonomous microrobots have been reported until recently. These are simple mobile platforms, without sensors on board. Their electronics are basically focused on motion. I-SWARM is the first autonomous microrobot, 23mm3 and 70mg, designed to move, sense, take decisions, communicate and work in cooperation with other l-SWARM micro- robots. The area and weight of a microrobot are critical and limits the use of off-the-shelf components. So, it is required to integrate in a unique chip all the electronics, including the clock source, the POR and the voltage regulators.
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Papers by Anna Arbat