A stick-slip/inchworm hybrid rotary piezo motor based on a symmetric triangular driving mechanism

Abstract

A stick-slip/inchworm hybrid rotary piezomotor based on a symmetric triangular driving mechanism, which can simultaneously achieve the benefits of both stick-slip and inchworm motors, was reported in this letter. It is based on the principle of stick-slip motors, and, inspired by the clamping-releasing actions from inchworm motors, it employs a symmetric triangular driving mechanism to generate a clamping action during the stick phase and a releasing action during the slip phase. Compared with stick-slip motors, it involves a clamping action during the stick phase and a releasing action during the slip phase, thus resulting in a larger driving force. Compared with inchworm motors, which require active control and coordination of clamping/releasing modules with feeding modules, it involves the control and operation of only one feeding piezoactuator without any actively controlled clamping/releasing module. Therefore, the control is easier, and a much larger operation frequency and driving speed can be achieved. Under the sawtooth waveform voltage of 90 V at 2600 Hz with a self-holding torque of 4 N m, the prototype achieved a no-load speed higher than 0.6 rad/s, a load torque capacity larger than 1.8 N m, and a weight carrying capacity more than 100 kg for both clockwise and anticlockwise directions. Compared with load torque capacity and weight carrying capacity in the reported stick-slip and inchworm rotary piezomotors, the current levels in terms of the same driving speed have been improved over 60 times and 12 times, respectively, in the proposed hybrid motor.