Performance improvement of smooth impact drive mechanism at low voltage utilizing ultrasonic friction reduction

The smooth impact drive mechanism (SIDM) actuator is traditionally excited by a saw-tooth wave, but it requires large input voltages for high-speed operation and load capacity. To improve the output characteristic of the SIDM operating at low input voltage, a novel driving method based on ultrasonic friction reduction technology is proposed in this paper. A micro-amplitude sinusoidal signal with high frequency is applied to the rapid deformation stage of the traditional saw-tooth wave. The proposed driving method can be realized by a composite waveform that includes a driving wave (D-wave) and a friction regulation wave (FR-wave). The driving principle enables lower input voltage to be used in normal operation, and the principle of the proposed driving method is analyzed. A prototype of the SIDM is fabricated, and its experimental system is established. The tested results indicate that the actuator has suitable velocity and load characteristics while operating at lower input voltage, and the load capacity of the actuator is 2.4 times that of an actuator excited by a traditional saw-tooth driving wave.