FPGA based control of a walking piezo motor

This paper describes FPGA based control system for a piezoelectric motor, commercially available Piezo LEGS motor. Driving voltages waveforms are defined as a combination of linear functions. This definition provides possibility for easy implementation on very simple hardware. Linear functions parameters allow forming of the driving voltages according to desired trajectory of motor´s legs. Considering that FPGA technology offers many advantages over the classical microprocessor based systems, it is used as control system implementation hardware. Realized control system can be very easily expanded to control multiple motors, if hardware resources are big enough. Also modularity is provided, making the future application very simple. In the paper control system structure is described in detail along with a very simple control algorithm for Piezo LEGS motor positioning control. Experimental results are given to validate designed control system. They showed satisfying control performance, responses with no overshoot and expected steady state error.