Omni-directional orientation analysis of a triplet-stator spherical piezoelectric motor system

Abstract

ABSTRACT Spherical piezoelectric motors (SPMs) represent a promising actuator technology applicable to the development of motion control systems with multiple degrees of freedom. However, few SPMs have made it successfully to market, as an effective and systematic rotor orientation analysis and manipulation technique has yet to be developed. This study thus developed a novel triplet-stator SPM design that integrates electrode configuration to excite lateral vibrations and offers two fundamental rotor orientations for each set of piezoelectric plates by changing the contact position between the rotor and stator. To accomplish omnidirectional orientations for the proposed SPM system, we present a systematic orientation analysis based on spherical coordinates. We further apply the concept of vector composition to derive new composite orientations by adjusting the magnitude ratio of the provided torques between three stators. An orientation angle representation accounting for the rotor dynamics is used to validate the correctness of the synthesized orientation vectors both in simulation and experiments. The orientation analysis results in a three-dimensional sphere containing eight vector spaces corresponding to eight stator actuation modes, in which an arbitrary rotor orientation reference command can be generated under the designed actuation modes. Experimental results were well correlated with simulations, thereby verifying the effectiveness of the proposed SPM system design and orientation analysis.