Design and experiment performances of an inchworm type rotary actuator

A piezo-driven rotary actuator by means of inchworm principle is proposed in this paper. Six piezo-stacks and flexure hinges are used to realize large rotation ranges with high accuracy both in the forward and backward motions. Four right-angle flexure hinges and two right-circular flexure hinges are applied in the stator. The motion principle and theoretical analysis of the designed actuator are discussed. In order to investigate the working characteristics, a prototype actuator was manufactured and a series of experiment tests were carried out. The test results indicate that the maximum rotation velocity is 71,300 μrad/s; the maximum output torque is 19.6 N mm. The experiment results confirm that the designed actuator can obtain large rotation motion ranges with relatively high output torques and different rotation speeds on the condition of different driving voltages and frequencies.