Advanced opto-pneumatic control system and on-off characteristics of optical actuator

A step response relating the displacement to the light intensity in a bimorph typeoptical actuator consisting of two sheets of PLZT elements is analyzed theoretically, and the experimental equations about principal parameters included in the theoretical equation of the step response are derived from the fundamental experiment on the PLZT elements with various sizes. Comparing the analytical result with the experimental result about the step response of an optical actuator manufactured as a trial, each result shows a linear and first order lag factor characteristics and agrees well each other in regard to the finalvalue of the displacement. The time constant in the analysis shows a value 0.44 times as much as that in the experiment. If the cause for the difference is taken into consideration, the dynamic characteristics of a bimorph type optical actuator may be estimated exactly by the analytical result shown in this paper.