Note: A novel rotary actuator driven by only one piezoelectric actuator

Hu Huang, Lu Fu, Hongwei Zhao, Chengli Shi, Luquan Ren, Jianping Li, and Han Qu
Citation: Review of Scientific Instruments 84, 096105 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4821495
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4821495
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/rsi/84/9?ver=pdfcov
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REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 84, 096105 (2013)

Note: A novel rotary actuator driven by only one piezoelectric actuator

Hu Huang,1 Lu Fu,1,2 Hongwei Zhao,1,a) Chengli Shi,1 Luquan Ren,3 Jianping Li,1
and Han Qu1
1
College of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Renmin Street 5988, Changchun,
Jilin 130025, China
2
AVIC Beijing Chang Cheng Aeronautical Measurement and Control Technology Research Institute,
Beijing 100176, China
3
Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering (Ministry of Education), Jilin University, Renmin Street 5988,
Changchun, Jilin 130025, China

(Received 21 May 2013; accepted 2 September 2013; published online 17 September 2013)
This paper presents a novel piezo-driven rotary actuator based on the parasitic motion principle. Output performances of the rotary actuator were tested and discussed. Experiment results indicate that
using only one piezoelectric actuator and simple sawtooth wave control, the rotary actuator reaches
the rotation velocity of about 20 097 rad/s when the driving voltage is 100 V and the driving frequency is 90 Hz. The actuator can rotate stably with the minimum resolution of 0.7 rad. This
paper verifies feasibility of the parasitic motion principle for applications of rotary actuators, providing new design ideas for precision piezoelectric rotary actuators. 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4821495]
Precision linear or rotary positioning stages are widely
used in scientific research and industrial applications, such as
atomic force microscopes (AFMs) and scanning probe microscopes (SPMs),1, 2 precision and ultra-precision machining,3
aligning optics, micromanipulators,4, 5 micro/nano mechanical tests, and so on.6, 7 By means of piezoelectric materials, kinds of linear actuators have been developed based on
different driving principles, for example, piezoelectric stack
direct driving actuators,8 compliant mechanism actuators,9
inchworm actuators,10 impact driving actuators,11 stick-slip
actuators,12 parasitic motion principle actuators,13 and so on.
However, only few piezo-driven rotary actuators have been
presented1416 because some driving principles may be not
suitable for design of rotary actuators. In addition, most of
previous rotary actuators have complex structures or require
complex control, and also use several piezoelectric actuators.
In this note, a novel rotary actuator was presented based
on the parasitic motion principle, and its structure and work
principle are illustrated in Fig. 1. Obviously, the rotary actuator has a very simple structure, and it mainly consists of a
piezoelectric actuator, a flexible gripper, a rotor, a base, two
bearings, and some connectors.
According to the parasitic motion principle,13 when the
driving voltage is applied to the piezoelectric actuator, the
piezoelectric actuator extends and the grasping motion xa and
the parasitic motion ya appear at the output end of the flexible
gripper because of rotation motion of the lever-type structure.
The grasping motion xa makes the flexible gripper contact
with the rotor gradually and then the normal load N appears
between the contact surfaces. With increasing of the parasitic
motion ya , the rotor has the tendency to slip from the flexible
gripper and then the frictional force fN appears. The normal
load N clamps the rotor tightly, and the rotor will move along
a) Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail:

hwzhao@jlu.edu.cn.
0034-6748/2013/84(9)/096105/3/$30.00

the y direction because of the frictional force fN and the parasitic motion ya . According to the parasitic motion principle,13
continuous rotation motion of the rotor can be realized by
sawtooth wave control. Changing the driving frequency and
the driving voltage, different output performances can be obtained easily by the rotary actuator.
Fig. 2 gives stepping characteristics of the rotary actuator
with a constant driving voltage of 100 V and different driving
frequencies. Fig. 2(a) is the results when the driving frequencies are in the range of 15 Hz, and Fig. 2(b) is the results
when the driving frequencies are in the range of 10200 Hz.
Fig. 3 gives stepping characteristics of the rotary actuator with a constant driving frequency of 10 Hz and different
driving voltages of 45100 V.
As mentioned in Ref. 13, rotation velocity of the rotor
can be given as
V =f Se .

(1)

Fig. 4(a) is the relationship between rotation velocity and

the driving voltage when the driving frequency is a constant
of 10 Hz, and Fig. 4(b) is the relationship between rotation
velocity and the driving frequency when the driving voltage
is a constant of 100 V. In Fig. 4(a), rotation velocity increases
when the driving voltage increases. Rotation velocity is about
2954 rad/s when the driving voltage is 100 V and the driving
frequency is 10 Hz. In Fig. 4(b), rotation velocity almost increases when the driving frequency is in the range of 190 Hz.
Rotation velocity is about 20 097 rad/s when the driving
voltage is 100 V and the driving frequency is 90 Hz. When
the driving frequencies are 60 Hz, 70 Hz, and 80 Hz, rotation velocity nearly does not change. According to the parasitic motion principle,13 the main reason is variation of the
gap between the flexible gripper and the rotor during the rotation motion, resulted from manufacturing and assembling
processes. Another characteristic is observed in Fig. 4(b) that
rotation velocity reduces to 3225 rad/s when the driving

84, 096105-1

2013 AIP Publishing LLC

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096105-2

Huang et al.

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 096105 (2013)

FIG. 2. Stepping characteristics of the rotary actuator with a constant

driving voltage of 100 V and different driving frequencies: (a) 15 Hz;
(b) 10200 Hz.

FIG. 1. (a) Structure and work principle of the piezo-driven rotary actuator, and (b) Deformation schematic and geometric parameters of the flexible
gripper.

frequency is 200 Hz, which is caused by the reason that

though the piezoelectric actuator can work when the driving is
200 Hz, the free stroke of the piezoelectric actuator decreases
when the driving frequency increases.17
Fig. 5 illustrates stepping characteristics of the rotary actuator with different constant load torques. The constant load
torque was applied along the edge of the rotor by the weight.
During experiments, the driving frequency and voltage are
10 Hz and 100 V, respectively. Rotation velocity of the actuator reaches about 2954 rad/s when there is no load torque.
With increasing of the constant load torque, rotation velocity decreases, and the rotary actuator does not rotate when the
constant load torque is 1.47 N mm. So, the maximum constant
load torque of the actuator is less 1.47 N mm. Based on the
parasitic motion principle,13 the initial gap between the flexible gripper and the rotor is the main reason leading to small
loading capacity of the actuator for constant load torque. Un-

der ideal conditions for the parasitic motion principle, the rotary actuator nearly cannot bear any constant load torque. The
constant load torque shown in Fig. 5 is mainly used to resist
equivalent load torque of friction between the bearings and
the shaft of the rotor. So, this kind of rotary actuator usually
cannot be used for conditions with the constant load torque.
However, it can bear this kind of load torque that appears
and disappears along with appearing and disappearing of relative motion, such as the lateral load between the specimen
and the indenter shown in Ref. 18. Applications of the rotary

FIG. 3. Stepping characteristics of the rotary actuator with a constant driving

frequency of 10 Hz and different driving voltages of 45100 V.

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096105-3

Huang et al.

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 096105 (2013)

8

U=9 V
f=1 Hz

Rotation angle /rad

7
6
5
4

7 rad

3
2
1
0
0

10

12

Time /s

FIG. 6. The resolution testing curve of the rotary actuator with the driving
frequency of 1 Hz and the driving voltage of 9 V.

load torque because of the initial gap between the flexible gripper and the rotor. The rotation resolution is about
0.7 rad when the driving frequency and the driving voltage
are 1 Hz and 9 V, respectively. The rotary actuator designed
in this paper verifies feasibility of the parasitic motion principle for applications of rotary actuators. Using only one piezoelectric actuator and simple sawtooth wave control, the rotary
actuator can easily realize continuous rotation motion based
on the parasitic motion principle, which provides new design
ideas for rotary actuators.
FIG. 4. Rotation velocity versus (a) the driving voltage and (b) the driving
frequency.

actuator under this kind of load torque will be discussed in

another paper.
The resolutionthe minimum stable step size was measured via experiments. Results indicate that when the driving
voltage is lower than 9 V, the rotary actuator cannot rotate
stably. The resolution testing curve of the rotary actuator with
the driving frequency of 1 Hz and the driving voltage of 9 V is
shown in Fig. 6. The accumulated rotation angle of the rotor
is about 7 rad corresponding to 10 steps. So, the resolution
of the rotary actuator is about 0.7 rad. The fluctuation in
Fig. 6 is due to that the measured step displacement of about
28 nm is close to the measuring resolution of the displacement
sensor being 10 nm.
In summary, a novel piezo-driven rotary actuator was
presented based on the parasitic motion principle. Experiment results indicate that the rotary actuator can work well
with only one piezoelectric actuator. Rotation velocity of the
rotary actuator was measured and discussed, and it reaches
about 20 097 rad/s when the driving voltage is 100 V and
the driving frequency is 90 Hz. However, this kind of rotary actuator has small loading capacity for the constant
3100
2700
2300
1900
1500
1100
700
300
-100
-500

0 Nmm

f=10 Hz
U=100 V

0.30 Nmm
0.39 Nmm
0.85 Nmm

1.47 Nmm

0.3

0.6

0.9

1.2

Time /s
FIG. 5. Stepping characteristics of the rotary actuator with different constant load torques. The driving frequency and voltage are 10 Hz and 100 V,
respectively.

This research is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50905073 and
51275198), Special Projects for Development of National
Major Scientific Instruments and Equipments (Grant No.
2012YQ030075), National Hi-tech Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) (Grant No.
2012AA041206), Key Projects of Science and Technology
Development Plan of Jilin Province (Grant No. 20110307),
and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. NCET-120238).
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