The Design and Testing of a Cross-Scale Compliant Rotary Actuator with Minimum Actuation Redundancy and Sub-Microradian Resolution
Solving the common paradoxical problem between sub-micro-arc level resolution and a wide range of rotation angles in rotary actuators, this paper designs a single-drive compliant rotary mechanism (CRM) and develops a cross-scale compliant rotary actuator (CCRA). Specially, the proposed CRM employs a...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Actuators |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/14/6/284 |
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| Summary: | Solving the common paradoxical problem between sub-micro-arc level resolution and a wide range of rotation angles in rotary actuators, this paper designs a single-drive compliant rotary mechanism (CRM) and develops a cross-scale compliant rotary actuator (CCRA). Specially, the proposed CRM employs a single-input–four-output divergent parallel configuration to transform a unidirectional input force into a rotational moment around the rotational center, effectively avoiding asynchronous motion and rotational center shift caused by the multiple actuation. Moreover, the CCRA is developed based on the CRM and a direct-drive rotary (DDR) motor, and adaptive switching between the macro- and micro-combination can simultaneously achieve large rotary range and sub-µrad resolution. After a series of modeling, mechanism optimization, and simulation, a prototype experimental system was built to further test the performance of proposed CCRA. The open-loop and closed-loop characterization experiments showed that the CRM can achieve a rotational resolution of 0.05 <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi mathvariant="sans-serif">μ</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula>rad and a driving force of 0.78 N·m. In addition, the cross-scale switching experimental results show that the CCRA is able to achieve a static positioning accuracy of 3.5 <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi mathvariant="sans-serif">μ</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula>rad within a <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mo>±</mo><msup><mn>5</mn><mo>∘</mo></msup></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> rotational range. |
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| ISSN: | 2076-0825 |