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Design and Application of Actuators with Multi-DOF Movement

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A special issue of Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825). This special issue belongs to the section "Miniaturized and Micro Actuators".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 22674

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Chien-Sheng Liu

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Guest Editor

Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Interests: micro voice coil motor; precision measurement; geometric error measurement and system design for machine tools; 3D optical scanner; laser-based autofocusing microscopy; opto-electronic sensing and applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the increasing demand of industrial automation and robots around the world for a multi-degree-of-freedom (DOF) motion mechanism, a motion mode for actuators has been developed from simple 1-DOF motion to a multi-DOF motion and application of humanoid is actively proceeding. Conventionally, for joints and eyeballs of the humanoid, the multi-DOF systems are implemented with multiple motors to mimic the movement of human body. Multi-DOF systems are devices that can set orientation and positioning of the object in any direction. However, these systems have increasing weight and size. In recent years, various multi-DOF actuators have been developed and designed to achieve the multi-axis or multi-DOF motion.

Along with recent advances in materials sciences, stretchable electronics, and mechatronics, the research and development of multi-DOF actuators is rapidly increasing. The reasons lie in their multifunctionality, low cost, fast response, high repeatability, and small size, making them a promising solution for the industrial automation and robots. Applications of multi-DOF actuators cover a wide range of fields such as robotics, joints and eyeballs of the humanoid, haptic device for an augmented reality system, camera modules, data storage devices, projectors, optics, optoelectronics, and medical and mechanical engineering, to name a few, which are expected to expand substantially in the years and decades ahead.

Prof. Dr. Chien-Sheng Liu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Actuators is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

novel design of multi-DOF actuators
theory, modeling, and control
experimental methodology
multi-degree-of–freedom movement
manufacturing and processing
3D printing for multi-DOF actuators
applications in research, industry, and education

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 7792 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Control Allocation Design for Torpedo-Like Underwater Vehicles with Multiple Actuators

by Yung-Yue Chen, Chun-Yen Lee, Ya-Xuan Huang and Tsung-Tso Yu

Actuators 2022, 11(4), 104; https://doi.org/10.3390/act11040104 - 29 Mar 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3238

Abstract

For solving the transformation problem between the desired nonlinear control laws and installed actuators’ input commands of torpedo-like underwater vehicles, one closed-form control allocation method is proposed in this article. The goal of this study is to optimally distribute the desired nonlinear control law to each single actuator installed on the torpedo-like underwater vehicle. The first step of this proposed control allocation method is to arrange the required types, numbers, and positions of the installed actuators and then build up the thrust configuration matrix for the developed torpedo-like underwater vehicle. In this step, the desired nonlinear control law can be optimally distributed to output commands of installed actuators based on the optimization method. Next, through collecting the input and output data of each installed actuator by practical experiments, the mathematical transformation of input and output commands of each installed actuator can be found. For verifying performance of this proposed control allocation method, simulations with the robust trajectory tracking design of a torpedo-like underwater vehicle with four fins, four rudders, and one thruster are executed in this investigation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design and Application of Actuators with Multi-DOF Movement)

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14 pages, 6389 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design of 4-DOF Voice Coil Motor with Function of Reducing Laser Geometrical Fluctuations

by Chien-Sheng Liu, Yu-Cheng Wu and Yu-Jie Lan

Actuators 2021, 10(12), 320; https://doi.org/10.3390/act10120320 - 3 Dec 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3068

Abstract

In order to improve the quality of the laser and shorten the optical path of the fast steering mirror (FSM) laser compensation system, this paper proposes a four-degrees-of-freedom (4-DOF) voice coil motor (VCM) with the function of reducing laser geometrical fluctuations. The feature of this paper is the combination of a DC brushed spindle motor and the proposed 4-DOF VCM. A diffuser is installed on the shaft of the DC brushed motor for suppressing the laser speckle. The proposed 4-DOF VCM is combined with a laboratory-designed mirror set, controlling the laser direction to compensate for laser fluctuations. The proposed actuator was designed and verified by using the commercial CAD software SolidWorks and finite element analysis (FEA) software ANSYS. A mathematical model was built to simulate the dynamic response of the proposed 4-DOF VCM in MATLAB Simulink. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design and Application of Actuators with Multi-DOF Movement)

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18 pages, 6440 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design, 3D FEM Simulation and Prototyping of a Permanent Magnet Spherical Motor

by Umut Yusuf Gündoğar and Sibel Zorlu Partal

Actuators 2021, 10(11), 305; https://doi.org/10.3390/act10110305 - 21 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3451

Abstract

In recent years, large tilt angles, uniform magnetic flux distributions, strong forces, and large torques for motors have increasingly become important for robotics, biomedical, and automotive applications that have multi-degrees of freedom (MDOFs) motion. Generally, one-degree of-freedom motors are applied in MDOF motion. These situations cause the systems to have very complex and large structures. In order to address these issues, a 2-DOF surface permanent magnet spherical motor with a new mechanical design for the movement of the rotor with a large tilt angle of ±45° was designed, simulated, produced and tested in this paper. The motor consisted of a 4-pole permanent magnet rotor and a 3-block stator with 18 coils. In this study, the mechanical structure of the proposed spherical permanent magnet motor surrounded the rotor with two moving parts to move at a large tilt angle of ±45° without using any mechanical components such as spherical bearings, joint bearings, and bearing covers. Thus, the tilt angle, force, and torque values of the proposed motor have been improved according to MDOF motion motors using spherical bearings, bearing covers, or joint bearings in their mechanical structures in the literature. Ansys Maxwell software was used for the design and simulation of the motor. Three-dimensional (3D) finite element method (FEM) analysis and experimental studies were carried out on the force, torque, and magnetic flux density distribution of the motor. Then, simulation results and experimental results were compared to validate the 3D FEM simulations results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design and Application of Actuators with Multi-DOF Movement)

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9 pages, 1951 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Design of Four-DoF Compliant Parallel Manipulators Considering Maximum Kinematic Decoupling for Fast Steering Mirrors

by Guangbo Hao, Haiyang Li, Yu-Hao Chang and Chien-Sheng Liu

Actuators 2021, 10(11), 292; https://doi.org/10.3390/act10110292 - 1 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2105

Abstract

Laser beams can fluctuate in four directions, which requires active compensation by a fast steering mirror (FSM) motion system. This paper deals with the design of four-degrees-of-freedom (DoF) compliant parallel manipulators, for responding to the requirements of the FSM. In order to simplify high-precision control in parallel manipulators, maximum kinematic decoupling is always desired. A constraint map method is used to propose the four required DoF with the consideration of maximum kinematic decoupling. A specific compliant mechanism is presented based on the constraint map, and its kinematics is estimated analytically. Finite element analysis demonstrates the desired qualitative motion and provides some initial quantitative analysis. A normalization-based compliance matrix is finally derived to verify and demonstrate the mobility of the system clearly. In a case study, the results of normalization-based compliance matrix modelling show that the diagonal entries corresponding to the four DoF directions are about 10 times larger than those corresponding to the two-constraint directions, validating the desired mobility. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design and Application of Actuators with Multi-DOF Movement)

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13 pages, 7974 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Simulation of Novel 3-DOF Spherical Voice Coil Motor

by Yi-Hsuan Lin, Chien-Sheng Liu and Chiu-Nung Yeh

Actuators 2021, 10(7), 155; https://doi.org/10.3390/act10070155 - 7 Jul 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3925

Abstract

Multi-DOF motion is realized in the eyes and joints of robots mostly through the combination of multiple one-degree-of-freedom (1-DOF) motors. However, this results in reduced efficiency, a large volume, reduced response speed, and inaccurate positioning. To solve these problems, this study proposes a novel 3-DOF spherical voice coil motor (VCM). In this VCM, 16 coils and a radially oriented ring magnet are used to generate a Lorentz force to achieve motion. In particular, coils for Z-axis rotation are sandwiched between the coils for X- and Y-axis rotation. Furthermore, the proposed VCM can achieve 360° rotation about the Z-axis. The commercial software ANSYS was used to design and verify the performance of the proposed VCM. Simulation results indicate that this VCM affords improved power efficiency because only a suitable combination of coils, rather than all coils, needs to be powered on. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed 3-DOF spherical VCM. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design and Application of Actuators with Multi-DOF Movement)

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Review

Jump to: Research

24 pages, 5966 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Applications of Magnetorheological Fluid Actuator to Multi-DOF Systems: State-of-the-Art from 2015 to 2021

by Jong-Seok Oh, Jung Woo Sohn and Seung-Bok Choi

Actuators 2022, 11(2), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/act11020044 - 1 Feb 2022

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 4817

Abstract

This review article presents various multi-DOF application systems that utilize smart magnetorheological (MR) fluid. It is well known that MR fluid has been actively studied and applied in many practical systems such as vehicle suspension dampers. The design requirements for the effective applications of MR fluid include geometry optimization, working principles, and control schemes. The geometry optimization is mostly related to the size minimization with high damping force, while the working principles are classified into the shear mode, the flow mode, and the squeeze mode depending on the dominant dynamic motion of the application system. The control schemes are crucial to achieve final targets such as robust vibration control against disturbances. It should be addressed that advanced output performances of MR application systems heavily depends on these three requirements. This review article presents numerous application systems such as sandwich structures, dampers, mounts, brakes, and clutches, which have been developed considering the three design requirements. In addition, in this article some merits and demerits of each application system are discussed to enable potential researchers to develop more effective and practical MR application systems featuring the multi-DOF dynamic motions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Design and Application of Actuators with Multi-DOF Movement)

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