A 5-DOF inchworm applied to a flexible joint — The rotary motion of an inchworm

The actuator that works in unreachable small space and measures small displacements is required. A lot of research groups proposed and developed the actuators operated in a small production system. The motion of these actuators was limited to liner and rotational displacement on the horizontal surface. We proposed the micro actuators with multiple degrees of freedom consisted of six piezoelectric elements and six electromagnets. The motion principles of the actuator are a parallel mechanism and an inchworm. The actuator can realize small linear displacement and rotational displacement, and the actuator used is a Stewart Platform with an inchworm which can realize the small and large displacement. The actuator described above is used for not only a movable Stewart Platform but also a flexible joint with large working range. In this paper, the control signals for rotational displacement of the actuator and some experimental results are discussed.