Design, analysis and experimental performance of a stepping type piezoelectric linear actuator based on compliant foot driving

A stepping type piezoelectric linear actuator based on compliant foot driving is proposed in this paper. With the help of four piezo-stacks and four compliant feet, the designed actuator can produce large range linear motions in both positive and negative directions with high accuracy. The mechanical structure and the operating principle are discussed. Mohr integration method is used to analyze the deformation of the key component compliant foot. To investigate the working performance, a prototype is fabricated and a series of experiments are carried out. The experimental results indicate that the displacement outputs under various driving voltages and various driving frequencies show good linear relationships with the time. The driving resolution and the maximum output force are 10.98 nm and 43 N, respectively. The displacements deviation between the forward and backward motions within 30 steps is 6.82 μm and the amplitude of the parasitic motions is about 0.638 μm. The experimental results also confirm that the designed actuator can achieve various speeds by changing the driving voltage and driving frequency.