Motion Control of a Piezopolymer Bimorph Flexible Microactuator

Abstract

An optimal feedback control of a flexible microactuator made of a bimorph piezoelectric high-polymer material (PVDF: Poly Vinylidene Fluoride), is proposed in this paper. This optimal feedback control is based on the assumption that the full state vector of the system is available for measurement although practically all state variables are very difficult to measure in the case of a distributed parameter system. An observer is used to estimate the entire state vector of the system, but the presence of sensor noise tends to adversely affect the convergence of the observer. This naturally leads to a stochastic observer commonly known as the Kalman filter. Numerical and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller design method.