Design and Experiment of a Large-Aperture Hollow Traveling Wave Ultrasonic Motor with Low Speed and High Torque

Abstract

To realize applications involving low speed and high torque in the high-performance actuator industry, especially in the aerospace field, we propose a novel 70H traveling wave rotary ultrasonic motor (TRUM) with an outer diameter of 70 mm and an aperture ratio of 53% (the ratio between the aperture and outer diameter). The power transmission mechanism between the stator and the rotor is analyzed, and a method for realizing low-speed–high-torque characteristics of TRUMs is proposed. ANSYS software is used to simulate the modal parameters of the stator, and the ratio β between the normal amplitude and the tangential vibration velocity of the stator is proposed. The larger the value of β, the lower the speed and the higher the torque. Furthermore, two prototype motors are fabricated, namely, 70HA and 70HB. Compared with 70HA, the maximum no-load speed of the improved 70HB (50 rpm) is decreased by 23.1% and the maximum stall torque (2.4 N∙m) is increased by 100%. Besides this, with a smaller mass of 210 g and a higher torque density of 11.43 N∙m/kg, 70HB has fundamentally different mechanical characteristics.