A 3-DOF sandwich piezoelectric manipulator with low hysteresis effect: Design, modeling and experimental evaluation

Abstract

A novel 3-DOF piezoelectric manipulator was modeled, fabricated and tested in this work. The longitudinal deformation and the orthogonal bending deformations were used to achieve the motions along the Z, X and Y axes, respectively. A novel kinematic model was developed and verified by FEM simulation. A prototype was fabricated, the output displacement test, frequency response test, hysteresis and creep characters were investigated in sequence. The tested results stated that the maximum displacements of the manipulator were 13.4 μm, 13.3 μm and 3.1 μm in X, Y, Z direction, respectively. The resonant frequencies of the X, Y and Z axis were tested as 2.734 kHz, 2.758 kHz and 16.462 kHz, respectively. The hysteresis effect of the manipulator was just 1.53% under the voltage of 300 V and the frequency of 1 Hz. The tests of two-dimensional and three-dimensional circular trajectories were implemented to study the dynamic performances. The results showed that the maximum open-loop working frequency was up to 50 Hz with an error less than 5%. Prospectively, the manipulator could be applied to the precision positioning system with open-loop working and nano-positioning demands by virtue of its compact size, high resolution, high resonant frequency and low hysteresis effect.