Primary Analysis of Frequency Characteristics in a Miniature Self-Propelling Device Using Fe-Ga Alloys (Galfenol)

The present paper describes the theoretical analyses, design and experimental verification of a magnetostrictive actuating device, the locomotion of which is inspired by the motion of the smooth impact drive mechanism reported previously by a number of researches of our group. The proposed device is different from the reported device driven by a piezoelectric actuator. The proposed device is actuated by a micro magnetostrictive actuator constructed using an iron-gallium alloy. The proposed magnetostrictive actuating device is an interesting linear-moving mechanism and takes advantage of impact forces coupled with friction forces to achieve a long stroke with fine position resolution. The results of experiments indicate that the maximum speed of the prototype is approximately 1.0 mm/s at a current of 300 mA with a frequency of 4 kHz.