Design and performance testing of an ultrasonic linear motor with dual piezoelectric actuators

In this work, design and performance testing of an ultrasonic linear motor with dual piezoelectric actuator patches are studied. The motor system consists of a linear stator, a pre-load weight, and two piezoelectric actuator patches. The piezoelectric actuators are bonded with the linear elastic stator at specific locations. The stator generates propagating waves when the piezoelectric actuators are subjected to harmonic excitations. Vibration characteristics of the linear stator are analyzed and compared with finite element and experimental results. The analytical, finite element, and experimental results show agreement. In the experiments, performance of the ultrasonic linear motor is tested. Relationships between velocity and pre-load weight, velocity and applied voltage, driving force and applied voltage, and velocity and driving force are reported. The design of the dual piezoelectric actuators yields a simpler structure with a smaller number of actuators and lower stator stiffness compared with a conventional design of an ultrasonic linear motor with fully laminated piezoelectric actuators.     

Hybrid transducer type ultrasonic motor

A type of ultrasonic motor whose stator is composed of a torsional vibrator and multilayered piezoelectric actuators is proposed and has been fabricated for trial. The stator is operated at the resonance frequency of the torsional vibration. The vibrator generates the mechanical output force and the actuators control the frictional force. The construction provides for arbitrary Lissajous's figures at the contacting surface and contributes to large mechanical output power with high efficiency and bidirectional motion. It also gives greater freedom of design. The prototype motor produced a maximum torque of 7 kg-cm and a maximum efficiency of 33%     

考虑驱动和负载状态的三自由度超声电机接触模型研究

建立了一种考虑不同运转情况的对于三定子多自由度超声电机的接触模型。介绍了三自由度超声电机的基本原理和结构并计算得出了其驱动转矩,引入Hertz接触理论和Mindlin理论对摩擦情况进行分析,考虑了摩擦因数的动态非线性和摩擦力分布的非线性变化,提出了一种新型的接触模型,改进了传统的线性摩擦模型;通过转矩关系和摩擦模型对电机不同运动情况下摩擦力分布进行分析,并用Matlab绘制相应的摩擦力分布图。分析结果验证了三自由度超声电机合理性,说明了三相压电定子接触状态根据驱动情况和负载而定,为进一步的优化设计和性能改进奠定了基础。     

Traveling-wave piezoelectric linear motor. I. The stator design

A new type of piezoelectric linear motor incorporating a traveling wave has been developed. The linear motor is comprised of a stator and a carriage. The stator design, which consists of a meander-line structure and gear teeth mounted on the meander-line structure, is the focus of this article. The meander-line structure is constructed with bimorph actuators arranged in a line. These actuators are driven by two phased sets of alternating current (ac) in order to generate a traveling wave. The traveling wave is transferred to the gear teeth, by which the carriage is driven. Modeling of the stator is derived by use of a strain energy method. The performance of various materials is evaluated by analytical and experimental methods. The analytical and the experimental results are quite approximate. Modal analysis is investigated using ANSYS. Appropriate modes associated with ultrasonic levels of resonant frequency are selected to obtain desired motion and to enhance the output performance. Surface speed for various applied input voltage are studied and indicate a nearly linear relationship. The stator in combination with the carriage makes up the linear motor     

Traveling-wave piezoelectric linear motor Part I: the stator design.

A new type of piezoelectric linear motor incorporating a traveling wave has been developed. The linear motor is comprised of a stator and a carriage. The stator design, which consists of a meander-line structure and gear teeth mounted on the meander-line structure, is the focus of this article. The meander-line structure is constructed with bimorph actuators arranged in a line. These actuators are driven by two phased sets of alternating current (ac) in order to generate a traveling wave. The traveling wave is transferred to the gear teeth, by which the carriage is driven. Modeling of the stator is derived by use of a strain energy method. The performance of various materials is evaluated by analytical and experimental methods. The analytical and the experimental results are quite approximate. Modal analysis is investigated using ANSYS. Appropriate modes associated with ultrasonic levels of resonant frequency are selected to obtain desired motion and to enhance the output performance. Surface speed for various applied input voltage are studied and indicate a nearly linear relationship. The stator in combination with the carriage makes up the linear motor.     

新型方尖塔形定子二自由度超声电机的结构设计、驱动机理与性能研究

提出了一种新型二自由度超声电机结构及工作原理。该电机具有一个方尖塔形定子和一个具有凹球面的基座,定子由预压力弹簧压在基座的凹球面上。利用定子局部弯曲振动作为工作模态,使得该型电机易于小型化。有限元仿真观察到了定子驱动端的椭圆运动,作用于球面基座可驱动定子运动。原理样机性能为: x 方向最大速度145mm/s, y 方向最大速度180mm/s, x 方向最大推力4.3N,y方向最大推力5.0N。     

Verification of the Microgravity Active Vibration Isolation System based on Parabolic Flight

The Microgravity active vibration isolation system (MAIS) is a device to reduce on-orbit vibration and to provide a lower gravity level for certain scientific experiments. MAIS system is made up of a stator and a floater, the stator is fixed on the spacecraft, and the floater is suspended by electromagnetic force so as to reduce the vibration from the stator. The system has 3 position sensors, 3 accelerometers, 8 Lorentz actuators, signal processing circuits and a central controller embedded in the operating software and control algorithms. For the experiments on parabolic flights, a laptop is added to MAIS for monitoring and operation, and a power module is for electric power converting. The principle of MAIS is as follows: the system samples the vibration acceleration of the floater from accelerometers, measures the displacement between stator and floater from position sensitive detectors, and computes Lorentz force current for each actuator so as to eliminate the vibration of the scientific payload, and meanwhile to avoid crashing between the stator and the floater. This is a motion control technic in 6 degrees of freedom (6-DOF) and its function could only be verified in a microgravity environment. Thanks for DLR and Novespace, we get a chance to take the DLR 27th parabolic flight campaign to make experiments to verify the 6-DOF control technic. The experiment results validate that the 6-DOF motion control technique is effective, and vibration isolation performance perfectly matches what we expected based on theoretical analysis and simulation. The MAIS has been planned on Chinese manned spacecraft for many microgravity scientific experiments, and the verification on parabolic flights is very important for its following mission. Additionally, we also test some additional function by microgravity electromagnetic suspension, such as automatic catching and locking and working in fault mode. The parabolic flight produces much useful data for these experiments.     

A piezoelectric motor using two orthogonal bending modes of a hollow cylinder

This paper proposes a compact ultrasonic motor with low manufacturing costs, a simpler driving circuit, and scalability. The stator of the motor presented in this paper consists of a hollow metal cylinder, whose outside surface was flattened on two sides at 90 degrees to each other, on which two rectangular piezoelectric plates were bonded. Because the cylinder has a partially square/partially circular outside surface, the stator has two degenerated bending modes that are orthogonal to each other. A wobbling motion is generated on the cylinder when only one piezoelectric plate is excited at a frequency between the two orthogonal bending modes. A rod through a pair of ferrules was used as the rotor of this motor. The prototype motor, whose stator was 2.4 mm in diameter and 10 mm in length, operated at 69.5 kHz, was experimentally characterized, and a maximum torque of 1.8 mNm was obtained.     

单振子二自由度球面马达的运动机理

利用矩形板形压电振子的两种振动模态,构建了一种采用单片压电振子驱动球形转子,形成两个旋转自由度的压电球面超声马达,对马达的作用机理进行了仿真分析和试验验证.利用有限元法对马达的矩形板压电振子的振动模态、共振频率进行了分析计算,仿真结果表明矩形板压电振子能够形成振型清晰的B32和B23振动模态,模态频率分别为49.127 kHz和49.756 kHz.对压电振子上每个凸起与球形转子之间的接触点的运动轨迹进行了计算机仿真,并对仿真结果进行了试验验证.分析结果表明各接触点能有效形成时序合理的椭圆运动轨迹,作为支撑足的一组凸起的变形量占作为驱动足的一组凸起的变形量的30%,能够用于驱动球形转子形成二自由度转动.仿真分析和试验结果证明了二自由度球面马达球形转子形成二维运动的作用机理.     

Experimental study on control fins of a small flying vehicle using piezo-composite actuators

A camber morphing control fin design and an all-moving control fin design using piezo-composite unimorph actuators are presented in this paper. The control fin of a small flying object is usually actuated using a servo motor system with an electromagnetic motor. Much research has been conducted to solve the structural complexity of servo actuation systems to convert the rotation of a servo motor to a linear actuation motion. To simplify this structural complexity, several types of smart actuators have been developed, such as bimorph or unimorph actuators with piezoelectric material layers and shape memory alloy actuators. In this study, a camber morphing type control fin and an all-moving type control fin actuated using piezo-composite actuators are designed to evaluate their ability to simplify the structural complexity of the gear transmission and electromagnetic servo motor system or hydraulic actuator system. Within the skin of the control fin, a piezo-composite actuator is mounted and the other end inserted in a slot of the control fin. As the piezo-composite actuator is excited by an electric field, the pitch angle of the control fin is changed. Experimental testing for the pitch rotation angle of a control fin in a 450 V electric field showed the deflection angle of the camber morphing control fin was 1.4° and the rotational angle of the all-moving control fin was 5.4°, which is obtained from the rotation angle magnification linkage structural system.     

An ultrasonic piezoelectric motor utilizing axial-torsional coupling in a pretwisted non-circular cross-sectioned prismatic beam

A rotary piezoelectric motor design with simple structural components and the potential for miniaturization using a pretwisted beam stator is demonstrated in this paper. The beam acts as a vibration converter to transform axial vibration input from a piezoelectric element into combined axial-torsional vibration. The axial vibration of the stator modulates the torsional friction forces transmitted to the rotor. Prototype stators measuring 6.5 x 6.5 x 67.5 mm were constructed using aluminum (2024-T6) twisted beams with rectangular cross-section and multilayer piezoelectric actuators. The stall torque and noload speed attained for a rectangular beam with an aspect ratio of 1.44 and pretwist helix angle of 17.7 degrees C were 0.17 mNm and 840 rpm with inputs of 184.4 kHz and 149 mW, respectively. Operation in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions was obtained by choosing either 70.37 or 184.4 kHz for the operating frequency. The effects of rotor preload and power input on motor performance were investigated experimentally. The results suggest that motor efficiency is higher at low power input, and that efficiency increases with preload to a maximum beyond which it begins to drop.     

圆柱形三自由度超声电机定子的结构动力学优化设计

在已有研究的基础上,利用结构动力学方法,对圆柱形三自由度超声电机的定子进行了优化设计。首先根据该种电机的设计要求和先前的经验,确定了其定子的结构形式。然后应用精度较高的体积单元,建立了定子的结构动力学有限元模型。在灵敏度分析、确定设计变量的基础上,建立起定子的优化设计数学模型。最后,采用约束变尺度优化方法,在M ATLAB环境下编制了计算程序,得到了定子的优化设计方案,并制作了定子。实验表明:定子的工作模态满足预期的设计要求;实验结果与理论设计结果相符。同时,运用优化设计方法大大提高了设计效率。     

新型箝位式压电电机的设计研究

针对传统箝位式压电电机在谐振态下工作时,方波振动的箝位部分结构设计复杂问题,提出一种新型箝位式压电电机。该电机箝位部分与驱动部分均由同频正弦电压驱动实现正弦振动,通过定子对动子的箝位接触,实现动子单向输出运动。相较于传统箝位式压电电机和超声电机,该电机的定子结构设计无需采用模态简并,结构设计难度降低。利用有限元仿真确定定、动子结构参数,制造样机并搭建实验平台。对箝位部分分别采用正弦波与方波做激励,再对驱动部分进行波形对比,表明正弦波亦能达到预期效果。实验结果表明:准静态时,激励电压频率为250Hz、电压峰峰值Vp-p为10V时,步进距离为0.5μm,步进速度0.13mm/s;谐振态时,激励电压频率为540Hz、电压峰峰值Vp-p为70V时,步进距离为32μm,步进速度16.9mm/s;该电机可兼顾低频高分辨率和高频高速输出以实现跨尺度工作。     

A 1.6-mm,metal tube ultrasonic motor

A miniaturized metal tube ultrasonic motor, the dimensions of which are 1.6 mm in diameter and 6 mm in length, was developed. Two flattened surfaces with 90 degrees were ground on the outer surface of the stator. Two PZT-based piezoelectric ceramics were bonded onto these flat surfaces. The asymmetrical surface of the stator developed the split of the two degenerated orthogonal bending modes, resulting in a wobble motion. The working frequency of the 1.6-mm motor with 6 mm in length was 130 kHz. A torque of 0.5 mNm was reached at a maximum power of 45 mW with a speed of 45 rad/sec. The maximum efficiency was 16%.     

A single-element tuning fork piezoelectric linear actuator

This paper describes the design of a piezoelectric tuning-fork, dual-mode motor. The motor uses a single multilayer piezoelectric element in combination with tuning fork and shearing motion to form an actuator using a single drive signal. Finite-element analysis was used in the design of the motor, and the process is described along with the selection of the device's materials and its performance. Swaging was used to mount the multilayer piezoelectric element within the stator. Prototypes of the 25-mm long bidirectional actuator achieved a maximum linear no-load speed of 16.5 cm/s, a maximum linear force of 1.86 N, and maximum efficiency of 18.9%.     

机器人关节用三自由度球形直流伺服电机

介绍了作者研制的三自由度球形直流电机，阐述了它的结构特点、性能指标、输出力矩以及制造工艺特点等。试制结果达到了设计的要求，成为我国第一台研制成功的多自由度球形电机。     

Optimal design of rim motor for electric powered wheelchair

The authors aim to provide a novel design of rim motors for electric wheelchairs, using the conventional rim as the motor on each wheel. The rotor of the rim motor is a conventional hand rim plugged inside its tube with a series of magnets of alternate N and S poles. Two sectors of arc stator are designed facing the inner side of the rim. This configuration enables a larger force-arm that multiplies the force exerted along the rim to produce a larger torque than the conventional hub-in motor of smaller radius. An optimal design procedure for a rim motor would make electric powered wheelchairs foldable, light, fuel-efficient and easy to operate. Experimental results show that the prototype rim motor satisfies the required specifications in terms of speed, torque, torque density and torque ripples. This rim motor provides a promising option for actuators and is a revolutionary product for electric powered wheelchairs.     

Rotor Design and Finite Element Analysis of Traveling Wave Rotaty Ultrasonic Motor

The dynamic transfer mechanism of the traveling wave rotary ultrasonic motor rotor-stator' s contact surface is studied in the paper and the key parts stator and cone flexible rotor of ultrasonic motor are designed.The three-dimensional contact model and finite element model considering the radial sliding between the rotor and the stator are established. The relation between the stator surface particle that amplitude frequency characteristics,resonance speed,radial displacement of ultrasonic motor and the tooth height are analyzed. Mass point radial relative displacement of contact surface between the cone flexible rotor,flexible rotor and the stator are contrasted. The cone flexible rotor is better placed on the surface of the stator tooth through its elastic deformation is interpreted. The cone flexible rotor reduces the radial slip between the stator and the output efficiency of ultrasonic motor is improved. The displacement trajectory of the stator surface is synthesized in a row wave cycle. The method of the stator mass point elliptical motion drives the rotor rotation is verified.     

Piezoelectric stepper motor with direct coupling mechanism to achieve high efficiency and precise control of motion

The paper describes a piezoelectric motor that combines the merits of piezoelectric materials, such as high power density generated at electromechanical resonance, and a precise control of displacement. In the motor, a standing shear wave is excited at the resonance in the piezoelectric tube, and it produces high-frequency torsional vibrations of the stator. The vibrations are converted into unidirectional rotation of a rotor by using a direct coupling mechanism between the stator and the rotor in which a clutch drives the rotor via locking it. The direct coupling makes it possible to transmit the whole power generated in the piezoelectric tube to the rotor, and thus achieve the high efficiency of the motor. It also allows combining two regimes of operation: continuous rotation and a stepwise motion within a 360 degrees interval with a high resolution of angular displacement.     

Research on Torque Calculation Method of Permanent-Magnet Spherical Motor Based on the Finite-Element Method

In this paper, the finite-element method (FEM) is used to calculate the spinning torque of the permanent-magnet (PM) spherical motor. Three-dimensional (3-D) FE model of the PM spherical motor is established. Spinning torque distribution on the spherical surface and its variation curve on the equator are obtained respectively. In order to avoid the complicated torque calculation process under 3-D magnetic field and thus reduce the computational burden, the torque calculation method based on the 2-D conversion model is proposed. This method equivalently simplifies the magnetic field of the spherical PMs and the shape of cylindrical stator windings to be simulation parameters of the 2-D conversion model. With these parameters, 2-D conversion model of the PM spherical motor is established. Spinning torque variation curves obtained by the 3-D model and the 2-D conversion model respectively are compared and the results agree extremely well. By comparing the maximum static torque (MST) obtained under different configuration parameters of the PM spherical motor, it is found that the errors are within the allowable range. Therefore, the reliability of the proposed torque calculation method in the paper is verified. Finally, based on the 2-D conversion model, variation curves of the MST with the length of the air gap, the ampere turns, the length of stator windings and the outer radius of stator windings are obtained, and they are validated by those based on the 3-D model. These results can provide the basis for the optimization of the PM spherical motor.