Design and experimental research of a novel inchworm type piezo-driven rotary actuator with the changeable clamping radius

In this paper, a novel piezo-driven rotary actuator with the changeable clamping radius is developed based on the inchworm principle. This actuator mainly utilizes three piezoelectric actuators, a flexible gripper, a clamping block, and a rotor to achieve large stroke rotation with high resolution. The design process of the flexible gripper consisting of the driving unit and the clamping unit is described. Lever-type mechanisms were used to amplify the micro clamping displacements. The amplifying factor and parasitic displacement of the lever-type mechanism in the clamping unit was analyzed theoretically and experimentally. In order to investigate the rotation characteristics of the actuator, a series of experiments was carried out. Experimental results indicate that the actuator can rotate at a speed of 77 488 mu rad/s with a driving frequency of 167 Hz. The rotation resolution and maximum load torque of the actuator are 0.25 mu rad and 37 Nmm, respectively. The gripper is movable along the z direction based on an elevating platform, and the clamping radius can change from 10.6 mm to 25 mm. Experimental results confirm that the actuator can achieve different rotation speeds by changing the clamping radius. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4788736]