A novel stick-slip piezoelectric rotary actuator designed by employing a centrosymmetric flexure hinge mechanism

Abstract

Although the stick-slip piezoelectric linear actuators have been widely investigated, the design of stick-slip piezoelectric rotary actuators is rarely reported and the corresponding output performances could be further improved. In this study, by employing a centrosymmetric flexure hinge mechanism, a novel stick-slip piezoelectric rotary actuator was designed. Its structure and working processes were addressed in detail, and the main structural parameters of the centrosymmetric flexure hinge mechanism were designed by the finite-element method. After that, a prototype was fabricated and a series of experiments were performed to test its output performances. The experimental results showed that under various driving voltages, the actuator could output stable angular displacement, and with increase in the driving voltage, the angular speed tended to linearly increase. Under the driving voltage of 100 V and driving frequency of 600 Hz, the actuator reached a maximum angular speed of about 55 000 μrad s−1. The driving resolution of the actuator was 0.34 μrad, and the maximum vertical loading capacity and torque were tested to be 6 kg and 30 N · mm, respectively. In addition, both clockwise and anticlockwise rotations were realized by simply changing the direction of the driving voltage waveform, and furthermore, under the same experimental conditions, very similar output performances were achieved in clockwise and anticlockwise rotations. Compared with some previously reported stick-slip piezoelectric rotary actuators, it was confirmed that the vertical loading capacity and driving resolution of the designed actuator here had been improved, which would be beneficial to its practical application.

An umbrella-shaped flexible mechanism piezoelectric actuator with driving foot trajectory control

“…The traditional stick-slip piezoelectric actuator has the problems of small stepping displacement, weak loading capacity, and large backward motion. Wang et al designed a right-angle triangular flexible mechanism [23], Huang et al designed a piezoelectric actuator with an L-type flexible mechanism [24] and Wang et al designed a viscous-slip piezoelectric actuator using a center-symmetric flexible mechanism [25], which were designed to optimize and improve the structure of mechanisms, so as to these studies were conducted to improve the drive performance of the piezo actuator by optimizing the mechanism structure. But there are problems such as large backward motion and low positioning accuracy.…”

The Frequency-Variable Rotor-Blade-Based Two-Degree-of-Freedom Actuation Principle for Linear and Rotary Motion

“…The measurement results showed that the maximum rotor speed was 0.153 rad/s around the x-axis and 0.154 rad/s around the y-axis at a 400 V voltage and 460 Hz frequency, respectively. In 2020, a stick-slip piezoelectric rotary actuator was designed by Wang et al [35]. The results showed that the maximum angular velocity of the actuator was about 55,000 µrad/s at the drive voltage of 100 V and the frequency of 600 Hz.…”

Design of Micro Piezoelectric Stick-Slip Rotating Motor

“…Ultrasonic drive motors are driven by elliptical friction under the action of applied ultrasonic voltage, with fast speed and self-locking characteristics of power failure, but they have high requirements for the drive signal and serious heating problems caused by friction and wear [3][4]. The stick-slip drive motors adopt an asymmetric drive wave (sawtooth wave signal), and utilize the difference between the maximum static friction and sliding friction to drive by inertia, with a simple principle of motion, compact structure, and a motion speed between the inchworm motors and ultrasonic motors [5][6][7][8]. As a result, stick-slip actuation is more advantageous than inchworm actuation and ultrasonic actuation, and has been widely used in areas such as precision instrument measurement, bioengineering, and micromanipulation.…”