Development of Piezoelectric Inertial Rotary Motor for Free-Space Optical Communication Systems.

This paper presents the design, development, and investigation of a novel piezoelectric inertial motor whose target application is the low Earth orbit (LEO) temperature conditions. The motor utilizes the inertial stick-slip principle, driven by the first bending mode of three piezoelectric bimorph plates, and is compact and lightweight, with a total volume of 443 cm and a mass of 28.14 g.

Self-Calibratable Absolute Modular Rotary Encoder: Development and Experimental Research.

Advanced microfabrication technologies have revolutionized the field of reflective encoders by integrating all necessary optical components and electronics into a miniature single-chip solution. Contemporary semiconductor sensors could operate at wide tolerance ranges that make them ideal for integration into compact and lightweight modular encoder kit systems. However, in order to achieve the high accuracy of the operating encoder, precise mechanical installation is still needed.

Low Profile Triangle-Shaped Piezoelectric Rotary Motor.

In this paper, we present research on a novel low-profile piezoelectric rotary motor with a triangle-shaped stator. The stator of the motor comprises three interconnected piezoelectric bimorph plates forming an equilateral triangle. Bimorph plates consist of a passive layer fabricated from stainless steel and four piezo ceramic plates glued to the upper and lower surfaces.

Ring-Shaped Piezoelectric 5-DOF Robot for Angular-Planar Motion.

This paper provides numerical and experimental investigations of a ring-shaped piezoelectric 5-DOF robot that performs planar and angular motions of spherical payload. The robot consists of a piezoelectric ring glued on a special stainless-steel ring with three spikes oriented in the radial direction of the ring. The spherical payload is placed on top of the piezoelectric ring and is moved or rotated when a particular excitation regime is used.

Bi-Directional Piezoelectric Multi-Modal Energy Harvester Based on Saw-Tooth Cantilever Array.

The paper presents numerical and experimental investigations on a bi-directional multi-modal energy harvester which is based on a piezoelectric saw-tooth cantilever array. The harvester is composed of four piezoelectric cantilevers which are connected rigidly to each other. At each junction of the cantilevers, there are placed seismic masses which are used to reduce resonant frequencies of the cantilever array.

2-DOF Small-Size Piezoelectric Locomotion Platform with the Unlimited Motion Range.

This paper presents numerical and experimental investigations of a small size piezoelectric locomotion platform that provides unlimited planar motion. The platform consists of three piezoelectric bimorph plates attached to the equilateral triangle-shaped structure by an angle of 60 degrees. Alumina spheres are glued at the bottom of each plate and are used as a contacting element.

Development of a Novel 2-DOF Rotary-Linear Piezoelectric Actuator Operating under Hybrid Bending-Radial Vibration Mode.

The paper presents a numerical and experimental investigation of a novel two degrees of freedom (2-DOF) piezoelectric actuator that can generate rotary motion of the sphere-shaped rotor as well as induce planar motion of the flat stage. The actuator has a small size and simple design and can be integrated into a printed circuit board (PCB). The application field of the actuator is small-dimensional and high-precision positioning systems.

3DOF Ultrasonic Motor With Two Piezoelectric Rings.

A novel design of a multiple degrees of freedom (multi-DOF) piezoelectric ultrasonic motor (USM) is presented in the paper. The main idea of the motor design is to combine the magnetic sphere type rotor and two oppositely placed ring-shaped piezoelectric actuators into one mechanism. Such a structure increases impact force and allows rotation of the sphere with higher torque.

Bidirectional Piezoelectric Energy Harvester.

This paper represents a numerical and experimental investigation of the bidirectional piezoelectric energy harvester. The harvester can harvest energy from the vibrating base in two perpendicular directions. The introduced harvester consists of two cantilevers that are connected by a particular angle and two seismic masses.

Single Cylinder-Type Piezoelectric Actuator with Two Active Kinematic Pairs.

There is an ever-increasing demand for small-size, low-cost, and high-precision positioning systems. Therefore, investigation in this field is performed to search for various solutions that can meet technical requirements of precise multi-degree-of-freedom (DOF) positioning systems. This paper presents a new design of a piezoelectric cylindrical actuator with two active kinematic pairs.