A large-step stick-slip rotary piezoelectric actuator with high velocity under low frequency and small backward motion

Abstract Stick-slip rotary piezoelectric actuators (SRPAs) are commonly used nowadays. However, most of them achieve high velocity by high exciting frequency, which causes the problems of wide power-source passband requirement and the wear of actuators. Moreover, their further applications are limited, due to the poor motion stability caused by the backward motion. To solve the problems, the stick-slip process is analyzed with kinematics, indicating that the large step contributes greatly to SRPAs for achieving high velocity under low operating frequency and backward motion elimination. Then a large-step SRPA is proposed, fabricated, and tested. The experiments show that under the sawtooth signal with 100 V and 400 Hz, the prototype can reach a maximum velocity of 1.854 rad s −1 , benefiting from the large step (above 4.636 mrad). While other works require the exciting frequency of several kilohertz to reach the same level of velocity. Additionally, by increasing the step, the backward ratio decreases from 14.43% to 8.89% at the frequency of 1 Hz, and the minimum no-backward frequency decreases from 120 Hz to 60 Hz. The results indicate the effectiveness of the large step for solving the problems, which is significant for the design of SRPA.