Positioning stages using piezoelectric stack actuator (PEA) have very high theoretical bandwidth and resolution. However, as the total length of travel increases, nonlinear dynamics due to inherent hysteresis starts to dominate. In this paper, we separate the fast and slow dynamics of the total displacement and propose a simple first-order model. By approximating the hysteresis mapping with sim...

Current models of non-linear electromechanical behaviours of piezoactuators are mostly intended for actuator configurations where the strain of the piezoelectric material is directly used as the linear output. On the other hand, in the design of piezoactuators, there exist non-trivial configurations where the internal strains of the piezoelectric materials manifest externally in the form of ben...

This paper presents an analytical model for investigating the effect of debonding between piezoelectric actuators/sensors and the host beam on the sensing and actuating behaviour. In this model, both flexural and longitudinal displacements of the host beam and the piezoelectric layers are considered using classical beam theory. For the adhesive layer, only through-thickness peel strain and tran...

Nano-positioning technology has been widely used in many fields, such as microelectronics, optical engineering, and micro manufacturing. This paper presents a one-dimensional (1D) nano-positioning system, adopting a piezoelectric ceramic (PZT) actuator and a multi-objective topological optimal structure. The combination of a nano-positioning stage and a feedback capacitive comb sensor has been ...

The present paper gives an overview on actual developments of the application of piezoelectric components in transportation industry. During the last decades, piezoelectric materials made huge progress in entering commercial mass markets throughout all branches, where piezoelectrics are used as the basis materials for actuators as well as sensors. Especially in transportation industry, they fou...

Piezoelectric bimorphs have been used as a micro-gripper in many applications, but the system might be complex and the response performance might not have been fully characterized. In this study the dynamic characteristics of bending piezoelectric bimorphs actuators were theoretically and experimentally investigated for micro-gripping applications in terms of deflection along the length, transi...

A 3-PRR flexure based mechanism which is used as a redundant mechanism providing only x-y micro positioning is designed and controlled in this paper. The aim of this work is to eliminate the unpredictable motions due to manufacturing and assembling errors by implementing sliding mode control (SMC) with disturbance observer (DOB) using piezoelectric actuator models. The system is designed to be ...

The inclusion of embedded sensors into a networked system provides useful information for many applications. A Distributed Control System (DCS) is one of the clearest examples where processing and communications are constrained by the client's requirements and the capacity of the system. An embedded sensor with advanced processing and communications capabilities supplies high level information,...

THUNDERTM (thin-layer composite unimorph ferroelectric driver and sensor) represents a new class of piezoceramicbased actuators capable of generating significant displacements and forces in response to input voltages. The performance capabilities of THUNDERTM actuators are due to the component materials and process used in their construction. A typical THUNDERTM actuator is composed of metallic...