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Shunming Hua 1 and Guosong Liu 2 and Yinghou Lou 1 and Zhiqiang Li 1, 3 and Yuming Meng 1, 3
Academic Editor:Marco Ceccarelli
1, Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University, Ningbo 315100, China
2, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China
3, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China
Received 21 October 2013; Revised 24 February 2014; Accepted 5 March 2014; 2 April 2014
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
1. Introduction
Multi-degree-of-freedom (M-DOF) actuators are necessary in many precise positioning applications, such as microelectronics, nanoindentation and scratch, microrobotics, and biomedical and genetic engineering [1-5]. They certainly have to meet part of the needs, as small size, large stroke and high resolution, quick response, and cost effectiveness. In recent decades, precise positioning methods have been trended to be diversification, intelligentization, and integration. Many smart materials have been used to act as precise actuators, just like piezoelectric materials, shape memory alloys, electrorheological fluids, magnetostrictive, and electrostrictive materials [6-11].
In general, the traditional M-DOF stepping actuators can be mainly divided into three types: building block actuators (i.e., various combinations of single actuators), X-Y locomotive actuators (i.e., moving freely within horizontal plane), and rotary-linear actuators. Fuchiwaki et al. [12] investigated a 3D locomotive mechanism that consists of four Moonie piezoelectric actuators and a pair of electromagnets, whose resolution is less than 10 nm. Augustinavicius and Cereska [13] established FEM model of a 4D positioning stage which is featured with flexure-based joints and mechanical actuation. Seo et al. [14] presented the synthesis procedure for fine actuation system of 3D microparallel positioning platform. Meessen et al. [15] put forward a 2D rotary-linear actuator which is directly driven by electromagnetic manner, whose maximum driving force is about 23 N and torque 0.2 Nm. Koh et al. [16, 17] developed two kinds of 2D MEMS scanning mirror driven by piezoelectric beam actuators. Yamaguchi et al. [18] made trajectory analysis to a 2D magnetic resonant actuator, which belongs to XY locomotive type.
In most cases, the building block actuators' volume is large. And locomotive actuators are suitable for...