Study on the Small Sized Robots Actuator using Piezoelectric Ceramic Bender
This study proposed piezoelectric ceramic bender actuators for application to small walking robots. As the space where human access has recently become increasingly restricted (e.g. highly concentrated radioactive storage areas, viral contaminated areas, terrorist zones, etc. the scope of using robots is becoming more diverse, and many actions that were possible only in the past have been attempted to be replaced by small robots. This robotic concept has the advantage of being simple in structure, making it compact and producing a large size work force. The dynamic modeling, using finite element analysis, maximized the robot's mobility performance by optimizing the shape of the actuator, and the results were verified through fabrication and experimentation. The actuator moved at a maximum speed of 236 mm/s under no load conditions, and it could move at a speed of 156 mm/s under load conditions of 5g. The proposed actuator has the advantage of modular additions depending on the mission and required performance, which ensured that they are competitive against similar drive sources previously created.