Achieving Significant Burst Motion Based on Epicycloid Induction Principle for Stick–Slip Piezoelectric Actuator

The burst motion as a potential motion is discovered in recent years and has important effects on the output performance of the piezoelectric actuator. How to induce the burst motion has become a research hotspot and a current challenge in the field of the piezoelectric actuator. To eliminate the backward motion and induce significant burst motion, an epicycloid induction principle (EIP) was proposed in this article. Correspondingly, a stick–slip piezoelectric actuator with a special dual feet compliant mechanism was designed, and the corresponding prototype was fabricated to verify the EIP. Under the excitation of square wave signals, the driving and clamping feet alternately pushed the bearing, and the epicycloid motion of the bearing induced the burst motion of the slider. The threshold voltage about the clamping foot of the prototype with no backward motion was set through the pre-experiment. At this voltage, the displacement–time curves in one period showed three consecutive steps, which confirmed the feasibility of the EIP. In addition, the prototype has a resolution of 160 nm and the vertical loading capacity greater than 5 N. The proposed EIP is effective for inducing significant burst motion and offers a novel idea for the structure design of the stick–slip actuators.