Micro converter with a high step-up ratio to drive a piezoelectric bimorph actuator applied in mobile robots

In this study, a micro converter for driving a piezoelectric actuator is designed and implemented. The converter can produce 100 V, 80 Hz AC voltage from 3.7 V DC voltage. With regard to the requirements of micro mobile robots, the main contributions of this study are the design and implementation of a circuit topology supplying power for micro mobile robots at low power and the miniaturization of this topology to make it suitable for driving a centimeter-level robot. The 91 mg mass (excluding printed circuit board mass), 14 × 12 × 4 mm size, and 84.6% efficiency of the converter indicate that this circuit could be applied in micro mobile robots driven by piezoelectric actuators.

[1]  V. C. Valchev,et al.  Two-stage low-frequency square-wave electronic ballast with analog and digital control , 2017, 2017 15th International Conference on Electrical Machines, Drives and Power Systems (ELMA).

[2]  Qiang Zhang,et al.  A Frog-Shaped Linear Piezoelectric Actuator Using First-Order Longitudinal Vibration Mode , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[3]  Kristin L. Wood,et al.  Locomotion Study of a Standing Wave Driven Piezoelectric Miniature Robot for Bi-Directional Motion , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[4]  Liang Wang,et al.  A novel traveling wave piezoelectric actuated tracked mobile robot utilizing friction effect , 2017 .

[5]  Bhaskar Ghosh,et al.  Experimental characterizations of bimorph piezoelectric actuator for robotic assembly , 2017 .

[6]  Nilanjan Chattaraj,et al.  Effect of self-induced electric displacement field on the response of a piezo-bimorph actuator at high electric field , 2017 .

[7]  S. Louie,et al.  Electrostatically Driven Nanoballoon Actuator. , 2016, Nano letters.

[8]  Xikui Ma,et al.  A New Transformerless Buck–Boost Converter With Positive Output Voltage , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[9]  王彪,et al.  Piezoelectric transformer-based high conversion ratio interface for driving dielectric actuator in microrobotic applications , 2016 .

[10]  Jung-Ik Ha,et al.  Design considerations for high frequency DCM flyback converter , 2015, 2015 6th International Conference on Power Electronics Systems and Applications (PESA).

[11]  Kevin Otto,et al.  Miniature Piezoelectric Mobile Robot driven by Standing Wave , 2015 .

[12]  Woo Young Choi,et al.  Actively Clamped Two-Switch Flyback Converter with High Efficiency , 2015 .

[13]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  A power electronics unit to drive piezoelectric actuators for flying microrobots , 2015, 2015 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC).

[14]  Zhong Zhang,et al.  Low-voltage and high-performance electrothermal actuator based on multi-walled carbon nanotube/polymer composites , 2015 .

[15]  Jaekwang Nam,et al.  A crawling and drilling microrobot driven by an external oscillating or precessional magnetic field in tubular environments , 2015 .

[16]  Dejan Vasic,et al.  Energy recovery power supply for piezoelectric actuator , 2014, IECON 2014 - 40th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.

[17]  Cesare Stefanini,et al.  Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Solutions , 2014, Sensors.

[18]  Chen Chen,et al.  A low-power and high-gain converter for driving dielectric elastomer actuators , 2013, 2013 Twenty-Eighth Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).

[19]  Yiding Wang,et al.  A Review of Fabrication Options and Power Electronics for Flapping-Wing Robotic Insects , 2013 .

[20]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  Sensors and Actuators A: Physical , 2009 .

[21]  H. K. Liao,et al.  Study and implementation of a novel bidirectional DC-DC converter with high conversion ratio , 2011, 2011 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition.

[22]  Musa Mailah,et al.  Modelling and control of a piezo actuated micro robot with active force control capability for in-pipe application , 2011, Int. J. Model. Identif. Control..

[23]  Adrian Ioinovici,et al.  A single switch boost-flyback DC-DC converter integrated with switched-capacitor cell , 2011, 8th International Conference on Power Electronics - ECCE Asia.

[24]  Micky Rakotondrabe,et al.  First experiments on MagPieR: A planar wireless magnetic and piezoelectric microrobot , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[25]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  Design and fabrication of ultralight high-voltage power circuits for flapping-wing robotic insects , 2011, 2011 Twenty-Sixth Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).

[26]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  Milligram-Scale High-Voltage Power Electronics for , 2009 .

[27]  Jesus Leyva-Ramos,et al.  Modelling and analysis of switch-mode cascade converters with a single active switch , 2008 .

[28]  Kenji Uchino,et al.  Piezoelectric actuators 2006 , 2008 .

[29]  Robert J. Wood,et al.  A review of actuation and power electronics options for flapping-wing robotic insects , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[30]  Bor-Ren Lin,et al.  Soft-Switching Zeta–Flyback Converter With a Buck–Boost Type of Active Clamp , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[31]  Michael R. Kessler,et al.  Influence of frequency and prestrain on the mechanical efficiency of dielectric electroactive polymer actuators , 2006 .

[32]  Ronald S. Fearing,et al.  Power Electronics Design Choice for Piezoelectric Microrobots , 2006, 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[33]  Kenji Uchino,et al.  Piezoelectric Actuators Development History and the Future (特集 エレクトロニク・セラミクスの過去・現在・未来--35年の歩みを振り返って) -- (第二部 分野別に見るエレセラの過去・現在・未来) , 2006 .

[34]  A. Wilhelm,et al.  Evaluation of a micro fuel cell as applied to a mobile robot , 2005, IEEE International Conference Mechatronics and Automation, 2005.

[35]  A. Schneuwly,et al.  Charge ahead [ultracapacitor technology and applications] , 2005 .

[36]  K. Pister,et al.  An SOI process for fabrication of solar cells, transistors and electrostatic actuators , 2003, TRANSDUCERS '03. 12th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems. Digest of Technical Papers (Cat. No.03TH8664).