ACTUATORS

Actuators

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 how do you define Actuators??

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 Actuators

1. Electrical actuators
– Electric motors
• DC servomotors
• AC motors
• Stepper motors
– Solenoids
2. Hydraulic actuators
– Use hydraulic fluid to amplify the controller
command signal
3. Pneumatic actuators
– Use compressed air as the driving force
 Actuators

• Actuators are basically the muscle behind

a mechatronics system that accepts a
control command (mostly in the form of an
electrical signal) and produces a change in
the physical system by generating force,
motion, heat, flow, etc.

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 Actuators

• Normally, the actuators are used in

conjunction with the power supply and a
coupling mechanism as shown in Figure
3.7.

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FIGURE 3.7 A typical actuating unit.

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• The power unit provides either AC or DC
power at the rated voltage and current.

• The coupling mechanism acts as the

interface between the actuator and the
physical system.

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8
 Classification

• Actuators can be classified based on the

type of energy as listed in Table 3.2.
• The table, although not exhaustive, lists all
the basic types.

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 Classification

• They are essentially of electrical,

electromechanical, electromagnetic,
hydraulic, or pneumatic type.

• The new generations of actuators include

smart material actuators, microactuators
and Nanoactuators.

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• Actuators can also be classified as binary
and continuous based on the number of
stable-state outputs.

• A relay with two stable states is a good

example of a binary actuator.

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• Similarly, a stepper motor is a good
example of continuous actuator.
• When used for a position control, the
stepper motor can provide stable outputs
with very small incremental motion.

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TABLE 3.2 Type of Actuators and Their Features

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 TABLE 9.2 Type of Actuators and Their Features (Continued)

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 Principle of Operation

Electrical Actuators
• Electrical switches are the choice of actuators for
most of the on-off type control action.

• Switching devices such as diodes, transistors, triacs,

MOSFET (Metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor), and relays
accept a low energy level command signal from the
controller and switch on or off electrical devices
such as motors, valves, and heating elements.

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 Principle of Operation

Electrical Actuators

• For example, a metal-oxide field-effect

transistors (MOSFET) switch is shown in Figure
3.8.

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 metal-oxide field-effect transistors
(MOSFET)

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• The gate terminal receives the low energy
control signal from the controller that
makes or breaks the connection between
the power supply and the actuator load.

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• When switches are used, the designer
must make sure that switch bounce
problem is eliminated either by hardware
or software.

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 Electromechanical Actuators

• The most common electromechanical

actuator is a motor that converts electrical
energy to mechanical motion.

• Motors are the principal means of

converting electrical energy into
mechanical energy in industry.

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 Electromechanical Actuators

• Broadly they can be classified as DC

motors, AC motors, and stepper motors.

• DC motors operate on DC voltage and

varying the voltage can easily control their
speed.

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 DC motors

• They are widely used in applications

ranging from thousands of horsepower
motors used in rolling mills to fractional
horsepower motors used in automobiles
(starter motors, fan motors, windshield
wiper motors, etc.).

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 DC motors

• Although they are costly , they need DC

power supply and require more
maintenance compared to AC motors.

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 DC motors
• The governing equation of motion of a DC
motor can be written as:

• where T is torque, J is the total inertia, ω is the

angular mechanical speed of the rotor, TL is the
torque applied to the motor shaft, and Tloss is the
internal mechanical losses such as friction.

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 DC Motor Specifications

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 AC motors
• AC motors are the most popular since they use
standard AC power, do not require brushes and
commutator, and are therefore less expensive.

• AC motors can be further classified as the

induction motors, synchronous motors, and
universal motors according to their physical
construction.

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 AC motors

• The induction motor is simple, rugged, and

maintenance free. They are available in
many sizes and shapes based on number
of phases used.

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 AC motors

• For example, a three-phase induction

motor is used in large-horsepower
applications, such as pump drives, steel
mill drives, hoist drives, and vehicle drives.

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 AC motors

• The two-phase servomotor is used

extensively in position control systems.

• Single-phase induction motors are widely

used in many household appliances.

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 AC motors
• The synchronous motor is one of the most
efficient electrical motors in industry, so it is
used in industry to reduce the cost of electrical
power.

• In addition, synchronous motors rotate at

synchronous speed, so they are also used in
applications that require synchronous
operations.

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 universal motors

• The universal motors operate with either

AC or DC power supply.
• They are normally used in fractional
horsepower application.

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 universal motors
• The DC universal motor has the highest
horsepower-per-pound ratio, but has a
relatively short operating life.

• The stepper motor is a discrete

(incremental) positioning device that moves
one step at a time for each pulse command
input.

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 stepper motor

• Since they accept direct digital commands

and produce a mechanical motion, the
stepper motors are used widely in
industrial control applications.

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 stepper motor
• They are mostly used in fractional
horsepower applications.

• With the rapid progress in low cost and

high frequency solid-state drives, they
are finding increased applications.

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 stepper motor
• Figure 3.9 shows a simplified unipolar stepper
motor.

• The winding -1 is between the top and

bottom stator pole, and the winding-2 is
between the left and right motor poles.
• The rotor is a permanent magnet with six
poles resulting in a single step angle of 30°.

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 FIGURE 3.9 Unipolar stepper motor.

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 stepper motor
• With appropriate excitation of winding-1,
the top stator pole becomes a north pole
and the bottom stator pole becomes a
south pole. This attracts the rotor into the
position as shown.
• Now if the winding-1 is de-energized and
winding-2 is energized, the rotor will turn
30°.

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 stepper motor
• With appropriate choice of current flow
through winding-2, the rotor can be rotated
either clockwise or counterclockwise.

• By exciting the two windings in sequence,

the motor can be made to rotate at a
desired speed continuously.

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 Electromagnetic Actuators

• The solenoid is the most common

electromagnetic actuator.

• A DC solenoid actuator consists of a soft

iron core enclosed within a current
carrying coil.

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 Electromagnetic Actuators

• When the coil is energized, a magnetic

field is established that provides the force
to push or pull the iron core.

• AC solenoid devices are also encountered,

such as AC excitation relay.

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 Fig. Phesical feture of Solenoid

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 Most Common Solenoid Types

Pull Push Open-Frame Rotary

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 AC solenoid

• A solenoid operated directional control

valve is shown in Figure 9.10.

• Normally, due to the spring force, the soft

iron core is pushed to the extreme left
position as shown.

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• When the solenoid is excited, the soft iron
core will move to the right extreme position
thus providing the electromagnetic actuation.

• Another important type is the

electromagnet. The electromagnets are used
extensively in applications that require large
forces.

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 FIGURE 9.10 Solenoid operated directional control valve.

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 Hydraulic and Pneumatic Actuators

• Hydraulic and pneumatic actuators are

normally either rotary motors or linear
piston/cylinder or control valves.

• They are ideally suited for generating very

large forces coupled with large motion.

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 Hydraulic and Pneumatic Actuators

• Pneumatic actuators use air under

pressure that is most suitable for low to
medium force, short stroke, and
highspeed applications.

• Hydraulic actuators use pressurized oil

that is incompressible. They can produce
very large forces coupled with large
motion in a cost-effective manner.
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 Hydraulic and Pneumatic Actuators

• The disadvantage with the hydraulic

actuators is that they are more complex
and need more maintenance.

• The rotary motors are usually used in

applications where low speed and high
torque are required.

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 Hydraulic and Pneumatic Actuators

• The cylinder/piston actuators are suited for

application of linear motion such as
aircraft flap control.

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 Hydraulic and Pneumatic Actuators

• Control valves in the form of directional

control valves are used in conjunction with
rotary motors and cylinders to control the
fluid flow direction as shown in Figure
9.10.

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 Hydraulic and Pneumatic Actuators

• In this solenoid operated directional

control valve, the valve position dictates
the direction motion of the cylinder/piston
arrangement.

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 Smart Material Actuators
• Unlike the conventional actuators, the smart
material actuators typically become part of the
load bearing structures.

• This is achieved by embedding the actuators in

a distributed manner and integrating into the
load bearing structure that could be used to
suppress vibration, cancel the noise, and
change shape.

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 Smart Material Actuators

• Of the many smart material actuators,

shape memory alloys, piezoelectric (PZT),
magnetostrictive, Electrorheological
fluids, and ion exchange polymers are
most common.

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 Smart Material Actuators

• Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) are alloys of

nickel and titanium that undergo phase
transformation when subjected to a
thermal field.

• The SMAs are also known as NITINOL for

Nickel Titanium Naval Ordnance
Laboratory.

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 Smart Material Actuators

• When cooled below a critical temperature,

their crystal structure enters martensitic
phase as shown in Figure bellow

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 Smart Material Actuators

• In this state the alloy is plastic and can

easily be manipulated. When the alloy is
heated above the critical temperature (in
the range of 50–80°C), the phase changes
to austenitic phase.

• Here the alloy resumes the shape that it

formally had at the higher temperature.
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 Smart Material Actuators

• For example, a straight wire at room

temperature can be made to regain its
programmed semicircle shape when
heated that has found applications in
orthodontics and other tensioning devices.

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 Smart Material Actuators
• The wires are typically heated by passing
a current (up to several amperes), 0 at
very low voltage (2–10 V typical).

• The PZT actuators are essentially

piezocrystals with top and bottom
conducting films as shown in Figure 3.12.

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 Smart Material Actuators

• When an electric voltage is applied

across the two conducting films, the
crystal expands in the transverse
direction as shown by the dotted lines.

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 Smart Material Actuators
• When the voltage polarity is reversed, the
crystal contracts thereby providing
bidirectional actuation.

• The interaction between the mechanical

and electrical behavior of the
piezoelectric materials can be expressed
as:

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 Smart Material Actuators

• where T is the stress, is the elastic

coefficients at constant electric field, S is
the strain, e is the dielectric permittivity,
and E is the electric field.

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 Smart Material Actuators

• One application of these actuators is

as shown in Figure 3.13. The two
piezoelectric patches are excited with
opposite polarity to create transverse
vibration in the cantilever beam.

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 Smart Material Actuators

• These actuators provide high bandwidth (0–

10 kHz typical) with small displacement.

• Since there are no moving parts to the

actuator, it is compact and ideally suited for
micro and nano actuation.

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 Smart Material Actuators

• Unlike the bidirectional actuation of

piezoelectric actuators, the electrostriction
effect is a second-order effect, i.e., it
responds to an electric field with
unidirectional expansion regardless of
polarity.

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 Smart Material Actuators
• Magnetostrictive material is an alloy of
terbium, dysprosium, and iron that
generates mechanical strains up to
2000 microstrain in response to
applied magnetic fields.

• They are available in the form of rods,

plates, washers, and powder.
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• Figure 3.14 shows a typical
magnetostrictive rod actuator that is
surrounded by a magnetic coil.

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 Smart Material Actuators

• When the coil is excited, the rod elongates

in proportion to the intensity of the
magnetic field established. The
magnetomechanical relationship is given
as:

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• where, ε is the strain, the compliance at
constant magnetic filed, σ the stress, d the
magnetostriction constant, and H the
magnetic field intensity.

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 Micro- and Nanoactuators

• Microactuators, also called micromachines,

microelectromechanical system (MEMS),
and microsystems are the tiny mobile
devices being developed utilizing the
standard microelectronics processes with
the integration of semiconductors and
machined micromechanical elements.
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• Another definition states that any device
produced by assembling extremely small
functional parts of around 1–15 mm is
called a micromachine.

• In electrostatic motors, electrostatic force

is dominant, unlike the conventional
motors that are based on magnetic forces.

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• Figure 3.15 shows one type of electrostatic motor. The rotor
is an annular disk with uniform permitivity and
conductivity. In operation, a voltage is applied to the two
conducting parallel plates separated by an insulation layer.

• The rotor rotates with a constant velocity between the two

coplanar concentric arrays of stator electrodes.

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 Selection Criteria

• The selection of the proper actuator is

more complicated than selection of the
sensors, primarily due to their effect on the
dynamic behavior of the overall system.

• Furthermore, the selection of the actuator

dominates the power needs and the
coupling mechanisms of the entire system.
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 Selection Criteria

• The coupling mechanism can sometimes be

completely avoided if the actuator provides the
output that can be directly interfaced to the
physical system.

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• For example, choosing a linear motor in place of
a rotary motor can eliminate the need of a
coupling mechanism to convert rotary motion to
linear motion.

• In general, the following performance

parameters must be addressed before choosing
an actuator for a specific need:

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 performance parameters
• Continuous power output —The maximum
force/torque attainable continuously
without exceeding the temperature limits
• Range of motion —The range of
linear/rotary motion
• Resolution —The minimum increment of
force/torque attainable

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• Accuracy — Linearity of the relationship
between the input and output Peak
force/torque—The force/torque at which
the actuator stalls
• Heat dissipation — Maximum wattage of
heat dissipation in continuous operation
• Speed characteristics — Force/torque
versus speed relationship
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• No load speed —Typical operating
speed/velocity with no external load
• Frequency response —The range of
frequency over which the output follows
the input faithfully, applicable to linear
actuators

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• Power requirement —Type of power (AC or
DC), number of phases, voltage level, and
current capacity

• In addition to the above-referred criteria,

many other factors become important
depending upon the type of power and the
coupling mechanism required.
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Questions