For the progress of CD microfluidic project, there is a need for an active positioning and controlling system, so that we are no more limited to just centrifugal based forces for the movement of the fluid on the surface of the CD. Design and implementation of a Path Tracking System is a milestone towards this goal.

In this research project, a brief overview of the CD microfluidic is presented, and the possible applications for non-centrifugal motion controlling in the Lab-on-a-CD project are addressed. Afterward, various Path Tracking Systems are investigated and lastly the most proper one was designed and implemented for a rotary platform used in CD microfluidic applications. Stepper motors were chosen as the candidate actuators for this setup. Later, a brief introduction on stepper motors and their control methods were presented. Programming language Q-Basic and Graphical programming platform LabVIEW were used to control the stepper motors in this System. Control of these motors was done via the both methods of using the parallel port and DAQ card.

In the end, the proposed algorithm and its implementation for tracking a specific path is presented. The results of tracking some desired paths are provided and the path tracking resolution was investigated. Our Path Tracking System can be implemented for active microfluidic valve designs such as wax valves and Ferrowax valves. It could also be used to move a ferrofluid microdrop inside the microchannels. Its usage in microarray printing can be one of its other applications.