Development of a low-voltage driven non-resonant three-DOF eyeball-like piezoelectric actuator

Abstract

Abstract In this work, a low-voltage driven non-resonant three degree-of-freedom (DOF) eyeball-like piezoelectric actuator is proposed. Elliptical motions on the driving feet are formed from the pushing and pulling actions of the flexible displacement amplification (FDA) mechanism in the piezoelectric actuator. There are three types of elliptical movements to drive the spherical rotor around three coordinate axes while driving the different groups of piezoelectric stacks. The principles of the three-DOF rotations are analysed by theoretical and simulation methods. Fabrication of a miniature piezoelectric prototype of 34mm × 34mm × 34mm is conducted. Under a driving voltage of 40 V 0 − p , the maximum rotary velocities of the rotor around X, Y and Z axes reach to 62.5 r min−1, 65 r min−1 and 46 r min−1 at 1.5 kHz. High resolutions around X and Y axes up to 2.5 μ rad and 5 μ rad are obtained. The remarkable comprehensive performances enable much potential applications of this three-DOF eyeball-like piezoelectric actuator in precision pointing, attitude adjustment and bionic eye positioning systems.