Magnetic Shape Memory Alloy and Actuator Design

In the field of micromechatronics, microrobotics and specially microfactories, active materials are used in most cases. They permit high resolution and distributed actuation. In this area, Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys (MSMA) are possible candidates. If a lot of studies deal with MSMA, only few applications use them until now. MSMA are attractive active materials because they have large strain (about 10%) as the classical shape memory alloys (SMA), but can provide a 100 times shorter time response. The main disadvantages of MSMA based actuators are the brittleness of the single-crystal material, the difficulty to apply the strong magnetic field required to obtain sufficient strain and the nonlinear behaviour. We propose in this paper a novel MSMA based actuator changing the disadvantage of the hysteretic behaviour into an advantage. This device is a push-pull actuator: two pieces of MSMA material act in an opposite way. The magnetic fields are created by coils and concentrated by ferromagnetic circuits. In order to move the central part of the actuator, a current pulse in the first coil is generated. The hysteretic behaviour of the material permits to keep a stable position when no current is applied. A current pulse in the second coil permits to displace the central part in the opposite direction. The stable position depends on the magnitude and the time duration of the current pulses and an infinity of stable positions can be reached. The use of current pulses permits also a reduction of the coil heating (Joule effect losses) and a reduction of the magnetic circuit size. The performances and characteristics of MSMA are between these of classical SMA and these of piezo-electric materials. A thermo-magneto-mechanical model of our actuator is currently in development in order to design an efficient control law welladapted to the specific MSMA properties.