Modeling and control of micro-mechatronic devices: application of variational and energetic methods for micro-actuator design

This paper is focused on a modeling procedure wellsuited for the design of micro-mechatronic systems and especially for micro-actuators. The purpose of this publication is to show that the variational and energetical methods is not only wellsuited to model classical micro-mechatronic devices but that they are also well-suited to include complex dynamical behaviour such as non-linearity and hysteretical behaviour. This procedure is applied to the design of a new actuator using one of the relatively new smart materials, the Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys (MSMAs). It should be stressed that the presented approach can be extented to a great range of other smart materials and that the description can be easily extented up to the control level.