Note: A novel rotary actuator driven by only one piezoelectric actuatorHu Huang, Lu Fu, Hongwei Zhao, Chengli Shi, Luquan Ren, Jianping Li, and Han Qu Citation: Review of Scientific Instruments 84, 096105 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4821495 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4821495 View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/rsi/84/9?ver=pdfcov Published by the AIP Publishing Articles you may be interested in Design and experimental research of a novel inchworm type piezo-driven rotary actuator with the changeableclamping radius Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 015006 (2013); 10.1063/1.4788736 Fluid film force control in lubricated journal bearings by means of a travelling wave generated with a piezoelectricactuators' system AIP Conf. Proc. 1433, 697 (2012); 10.1063/1.3703278 Friction models incorporating thermal effects in highly precision actuators Rev. Sci. Instrum. 80, 045104 (2009); 10.1063/1.3115208 Thermally actuated untethered impact-driven locomotive microdevices Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 203512 (2006); 10.1063/1.2388135 Piezoelectrically driven rotator for use in high magnetic fields at low temperatures Rev. Sci. Instrum. 72, 1914 (2001); 10.1063/1.1347982

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REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 84, 096105 (2013)

Note: A novel rotary actuator driven by only one piezoelectric actuatorHu Huang,1 Lu Fu,1,2 Hongwei Zhao,1,a) Chengli Shi,1 Luquan Ren,3 Jianping Li,1

and Han Qu1

1College of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Renmin Street 5988, Changchun,Jilin 130025, China2AVIC Beijing Chang Cheng Aeronautical Measurement and Control Technology Research Institute,Beijing 100176, China3Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering (Ministry of Education), Jilin University, Renmin Street 5988,Changchun, Jilin 130025, China

(Received 21 May 2013; accepted 2 September 2013; published online 17 September 2013)

This paper presents a novel piezo-driven rotary actuator based on the parasitic motion principle. Out-put performances of the rotary actuator were tested and discussed. Experiment results indicate thatusing only one piezoelectric actuator and simple sawtooth wave control, the rotary actuator reachesthe rotation velocity of about 20 097 μrad/s when the driving voltage is 100 V and the driving fre-quency is 90 Hz. The actuator can rotate stably with the minimum resolution of 0.7 μrad. Thispaper verifies feasibility of the parasitic motion principle for applications of rotary actuators, pro-viding new design ideas for precision piezoelectric rotary actuators. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4821495]

Precision linear or rotary positioning stages are widelyused in scientific research and industrial applications, such asatomic force microscopes (AFMs) and scanning probe micro-scopes (SPMs),1, 2 precision and ultra-precision machining,3

aligning optics, micromanipulators,4, 5 micro/nano mechan-ical tests, and so on.6, 7 By means of piezoelectric materi-als, kinds of linear actuators have been developed based ondifferent driving principles, for example, piezoelectric stackdirect driving actuators,8 compliant mechanism actuators,9

inchworm actuators,10 impact driving actuators,11 stick-slipactuators,12 parasitic motion principle actuators,13 and so on.However, only few piezo-driven rotary actuators have beenpresented14–16 because some driving principles may be notsuitable for design of rotary actuators. In addition, most ofprevious rotary actuators have complex structures or requirecomplex control, and also use several piezoelectric actuators.

In this note, a novel rotary actuator was presented basedon the parasitic motion principle, and its structure and workprinciple are illustrated in Fig. 1. Obviously, the rotary actu-ator has a very simple structure, and it mainly consists of apiezoelectric actuator, a flexible gripper, a rotor, a base, twobearings, and some connectors.

According to the parasitic motion principle,13 when thedriving voltage is applied to the piezoelectric actuator, thepiezoelectric actuator extends and the grasping motion xa andthe parasitic motion ya appear at the output end of the flexiblegripper because of rotation motion of the lever-type structure.The grasping motion xa makes the flexible gripper contactwith the rotor gradually and then the normal load N appearsbetween the contact surfaces. With increasing of the parasiticmotion ya, the rotor has the tendency to slip from the flexiblegripper and then the frictional force fN appears. The normalload N clamps the rotor tightly, and the rotor will move along

a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:hwzhao@jlu.edu.cn.

the y direction because of the frictional force fN and the para-sitic motion ya. According to the parasitic motion principle,13

continuous rotation motion of the rotor can be realized bysawtooth wave control. Changing the driving frequency andthe driving voltage, different output performances can be ob-tained easily by the rotary actuator.

Fig. 2 gives stepping characteristics of the rotary actuatorwith a constant driving voltage of 100 V and different drivingfrequencies. Fig. 2(a) is the results when the driving frequen-cies are in the range of 1–5 Hz, and Fig. 2(b) is the resultswhen the driving frequencies are in the range of 10–200 Hz.

Fig. 3 gives stepping characteristics of the rotary actua-tor with a constant driving frequency of 10 Hz and differentdriving voltages of 45–100 V.

As mentioned in Ref. 13, rotation velocity of the rotorcan be given as

V =f Se. (1)

Fig. 4(a) is the relationship between rotation velocity andthe driving voltage when the driving frequency is a constantof 10 Hz, and Fig. 4(b) is the relationship between rotationvelocity and the driving frequency when the driving voltageis a constant of 100 V. In Fig. 4(a), rotation velocity increaseswhen the driving voltage increases. Rotation velocity is about2954 μrad/s when the driving voltage is 100 V and the drivingfrequency is 10 Hz. In Fig. 4(b), rotation velocity almost in-creases when the driving frequency is in the range of 1–90 Hz.Rotation velocity is about 20 097 μrad/s when the drivingvoltage is 100 V and the driving frequency is 90 Hz. Whenthe driving frequencies are 60 Hz, 70 Hz, and 80 Hz, rota-tion velocity nearly does not change. According to the par-asitic motion principle,13 the main reason is variation of thegap between the flexible gripper and the rotor during the ro-tation motion, resulted from manufacturing and assemblingprocesses. Another characteristic is observed in Fig. 4(b) thatrotation velocity reduces to 3225 μrad/s when the driving

0034-6748/2013/84(9)/096105/3/$30.00 © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC84, 096105-1

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096105-2 Huang et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 096105 (2013)

FIG. 1. (a) Structure and work principle of the piezo-driven rotary actua-tor, and (b) Deformation schematic and geometric parameters of the flexiblegripper.

frequency is 200 Hz, which is caused by the reason thatthough the piezoelectric actuator can work when the driving is200 Hz, the free stroke of the piezoelectric actuator decreaseswhen the driving frequency increases.17

Fig. 5 illustrates stepping characteristics of the rotary ac-tuator with different constant load torques. The constant loadtorque was applied along the edge of the rotor by the weight.During experiments, the driving frequency and voltage are10 Hz and 100 V, respectively. Rotation velocity of the actu-ator reaches about 2954 μrad/s when there is no load torque.With increasing of the constant load torque, rotation veloc-ity decreases, and the rotary actuator does not rotate when theconstant load torque is 1.47 N mm. So, the maximum constantload torque of the actuator is less 1.47 N mm. Based on theparasitic motion principle,13 the initial gap between the flex-ible gripper and the rotor is the main reason leading to smallloading capacity of the actuator for constant load torque. Un-

FIG. 2. Stepping characteristics of the rotary actuator with a constantdriving voltage of 100 V and different driving frequencies: (a) 1–5 Hz;(b) 10–200 Hz.

der ideal conditions for the parasitic motion principle, the ro-tary actuator nearly cannot bear any constant load torque. Theconstant load torque shown in Fig. 5 is mainly used to resistequivalent load torque of friction between the bearings andthe shaft of the rotor. So, this kind of rotary actuator usuallycannot be used for conditions with the constant load torque.However, it can bear this kind of load torque that appearsand disappears along with appearing and disappearing of rel-ative motion, such as the lateral load between the specimenand the indenter shown in Ref. 18. Applications of the rotary

FIG. 3. Stepping characteristics of the rotary actuator with a constant drivingfrequency of 10 Hz and different driving voltages of 45–100 V.

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096105-3 Huang et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 096105 (2013)

FIG. 4. Rotation velocity versus (a) the driving voltage and (b) the drivingfrequency.

actuator under this kind of load torque will be discussed inanother paper.

The resolution—the minimum stable step size was mea-sured via experiments. Results indicate that when the drivingvoltage is lower than 9 V, the rotary actuator cannot rotatestably. The resolution testing curve of the rotary actuator withthe driving frequency of 1 Hz and the driving voltage of 9 V isshown in Fig. 6. The accumulated rotation angle of the rotoris about 7 μrad corresponding to 10 steps. So, the resolutionof the rotary actuator is about 0.7 μrad. The fluctuation inFig. 6 is due to that the measured step displacement of about28 nm is close to the measuring resolution of the displacementsensor being 10 nm.

In summary, a novel piezo-driven rotary actuator waspresented based on the parasitic motion principle. Experi-ment results indicate that the rotary actuator can work wellwith only one piezoelectric actuator. Rotation velocity of therotary actuator was measured and discussed, and it reachesabout 20 097 μrad/s when the driving voltage is 100 V andthe driving frequency is 90 Hz. However, this kind of ro-tary actuator has small loading capacity for the constant

-500-100300700

110015001900230027003100

0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2

0 N·mm

0.30 N·mm

0.39 N·mm0.85 N·mm

1.47 N·mm

Time /s

f=10 Hz

U=100 V

FIG. 5. Stepping characteristics of the rotary actuator with different con-stant load torques. The driving frequency and voltage are 10 Hz and 100 V,respectively.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Time /s

U=9 V

f=1 Hz

7 µrad

Rot

atio

n an

gle

/µra

d

FIG. 6. The resolution testing curve of the rotary actuator with the drivingfrequency of 1 Hz and the driving voltage of 9 V.

load torque because of the initial gap between the flexi-ble gripper and the rotor. The rotation resolution is about0.7 μrad when the driving frequency and the driving voltageare 1 Hz and 9 V, respectively. The rotary actuator designedin this paper verifies feasibility of the parasitic motion princi-ple for applications of rotary actuators. Using only one piezo-electric actuator and simple sawtooth wave control, the rotaryactuator can easily realize continuous rotation motion basedon the parasitic motion principle, which provides new designideas for rotary actuators.

This research is funded by the National Natural Sci-ence Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50905073 and51275198), Special Projects for Development of NationalMajor Scientific Instruments and Equipments (Grant No.2012YQ030075), National Hi-tech Research and Devel-opment Program of China (863 Program) (Grant No.2012AA041206), Key Projects of Science and TechnologyDevelopment Plan of Jilin Province (Grant No. 20110307),and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Univer-sity of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. NCET-12-0238).

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