Piezoelectric-Thermal Coupling Driven Biomimetic Stick–Slip Bidirectional Rotary Actuator for Nanomanipulation

Abstract

Substantial improvement of rotation driving accuracy is urgently needed and facing challenges. Miniature bidirectional rotary actuators with high-precision and controllable fallback rate require novel driving principles. Here, on the basis of a proposed biomimetic stick–slip motion principle, a novel piezoelectric-thermal coupling bidirectional rotary actuator was developed. The integrated mantis grasping leglike biomimetic claws and heating rods could realize the clockwise macroscopic rotation and anticlockwise macroscopic fallback of a cylindrical rotator, generated by piezoelectric stick–slip and thermal expansion, respectively. The rotation fallback was effectively inhibited at relatively lower frequencies and higher voltages, as a slight fallback rate of 0.095 was confirmed in term of 0.5 Hz and 80 V. An extraordinary piezoelectric-driven macroscopic rotation resolution of 0.2 μrad and thermal-induced microscopic resolution of 0.00073°/°C were experimentally revealed with the aid of real-time observation of the clockwise slow sticking and anticlockwise instantaneous slipping processes by using three-dimensional optical imaging.

A new stick-slip type piezoelectric actuator based on asymmetric diamond-shaped flexure hinge structure

“…In contrast, non-resonant actuators are more stable and unaffected by external factors (Li et al, 2023; Lin et al, 2023; Yu et al, 2023). It can be further divided into three categories: push-type, inertial-type, and inchworm-type (Ma et al, 2022; Xu et al, 2022; Yu et al, 2022). Push-type actuator uses the deformation of the piezo stack to directly push the slider, and it is able to obtain nanoscale resolution but it has limited motion travel stroke (Zhang et al, 2021).…”

Development and evaluation of a new piezoelectric stick-slip actuator using stair type flexure hinge

“…They are excited under the sawtooth signal and generally just utilize only one exciting signal. This kind of piezoelectric actuator has the features of simple excitation, long stroke and nanometer accuracy (Li et al, 2022; Ma et al, 2022; Qiao et al, 2022b). They can be further divided into two categories according to different working principles, and they are cantilever type and flexure hinge type, respectively (Wang et al, 2019).…”