Abstract
Shape memory alloy (SMA)s, in particular the nickel-titanium alloy (or Nitinol), have been used as actuators in some astronautic, aeronautic and industrial applications. Future will see more SMA application if less energy is required for actuation. This paper presents the design and experimental results of control of an SMA actuator using Pulse Width (PW) Modulation to reduce the energy consumption by the SMA actuator. An SMA wire test stand is used in this research. Open-loop testing of the SMA wire actuator is conducted to study the effect of the PWM parameters. Based on results of testing results and parameter analysis of the PW modulator, a PW modulator is designed to modulate a Proportional plus Derivative (PD) controller. Experiments demonstrate that control of the SMA actuator using PW modulation effectively save actuation energy whiling maintaining same control accuracy as compared to continuous PD control. PW modulator also demonstrates robustness to external disturbances. A comparison with pulse width pulse frequency (PWPF) modulator is also presented.
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