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Micromachines
Special Issues
Precision Mechatronics: Design, Control and Applications
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Precision Mechatronics: Design, Control and Applications

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "E：Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 12701

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Pengzhi Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Computing and Engineering, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham GL502RH, UK
Interests: piezoelectric actuator; nano-positioning; hysteresis; autonomous robot

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Precision mechatronics consists of synergistic interaction among mechanical, electronic, control, and computing engineering disciplines with accuracy of micrometer or sub-nanometer scale. It has been widely and successfully applied in robotics, optical system, scanning probe microscopy (SFM), semiconductor manufacturing, biomedical engineering, and cell manipulation. There are currently some emerging technologies and breakthroughs in this field, such as novel mechanical design, ultra-precise sensing, new actuation, and advanced and intelligent control. Thus, a new wave of opportunities for precision mechatronics is coming up, for instance, for Industry 4.0 automation and medical robotics. However, there are still some challenges that researchers and engineers should overcome to fully utilize the potential of precision mechatronics: modeling and control are inherently complex due to the nonlinear characteristics of the precision actuators; reliability/cost is always a hurdle for commercialization; and the tradeoffs among the travel range, dynamic response, and accuracy are often overwhelming. Accordingly, this Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers and review articles related with precision mechatronics that focus on but are not limited to:

  • Precision mechanical design, such as flexible parallel mechanisms;
  • Precision sensing, such as capacitive sensors and laser interferometers;
  • Precision actuation, such as piezoelectric actuators, voice coil motors, shape memory alloy actuators;
  • Precision control, such as advanced control and intelligent control;
  • Applications of precision mechatronics in robotics, optical systems, scanning probe microscopy (SFM), semiconductor manufacturing, biomedical engineering, and cell manipulation.

I look forward to receiving your submissions!

Dr. Pengzhi Li
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. Micromachines 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 2600 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

  • precision mechanism
  • flexible mechanism
  • capacitive sensor
  • laser interferometer
  • piezoelectric actuator
  • voice coil motor
  • precision control
  • precision mechatronics applications
    • robotics
    • optical system
    • scanning probe microscopy (SFM)
    • semiconductor manufacturing
    • biomedical engineering
    • cell manipulation
    • other

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3844 KiB  
Article
A Novel Analog Interpolation Method for Heterodyne Laser Interferometer
by Chung-Ping Chang, Syuan-Cheng Chang, Yung-Cheng Wang and Pin-Yi He
Micromachines 2023, 14(3), 696; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14030696 - 21 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1262
Abstract
Laser interferometer technology is used in the precision positioning stage as an encoder. For better resolution, laser interferometers usually work with interpolation devices. According to the interpolation factor, these devices can convert an orthogonal sinusoidal signal into several square-wave signals via digital processing. [...] Read more.
Laser interferometer technology is used in the precision positioning stage as an encoder. For better resolution, laser interferometers usually work with interpolation devices. According to the interpolation factor, these devices can convert an orthogonal sinusoidal signal into several square-wave signals via digital processing. The bandwidth of the processing will be the limitation of the moving speed of the positioning stage. Therefore, the user needs to make a trade-off between the interpolation factor and the moving speed. In this investigation, a novel analog interpolation method for a heterodyne laser interferometer has been proposed. This method is based on the principle of the lock-in amplifier (LIA). By using the proposed interpolation method, the bandwidth of the laser encoder system can be independent of the interpolation factor. This will be a significant benefit for the ultra-high resolution encoder system and the laser interferometers. The concept, design, and experiment are revealed in this manuscript. The experimental results show that the proposed interpolation method can reach nanometer resolution with a heterodyne laser interferometer, and the bandwidth of the signal is independent of the resolution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Mechatronics: Design, Control and Applications)
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20 pages, 8047 KiB  
Article
Spatial Trajectory Tracking of Wall-Climbing Robot on Cylindrical Tank Surface Using Backstepping Sliding-Mode Control
by Jiameng Xue, Jingyu Chen, Alexsandru Stancu, Xingsong Wang and Jie Li
Micromachines 2023, 14(3), 548; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14030548 - 26 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1719
Abstract
Wall-climbing robots have been well-developed for storage tank inspection. This work presents a backstepping sliding-mode control (BSMC) strategy for the spatial trajectory tracking control of a wall-climbing robot, which is specially designed to inspect inside and outside of cylindrical storage tanks. The inspection [...] Read more.
Wall-climbing robots have been well-developed for storage tank inspection. This work presents a backstepping sliding-mode control (BSMC) strategy for the spatial trajectory tracking control of a wall-climbing robot, which is specially designed to inspect inside and outside of cylindrical storage tanks. The inspection robot is designed with four magnetic wheels, which are driven by two DC motors. In order to achieve an accurate spatial position of the robot, a multisensor-data-fusion positioning method is developed. The new control method is proposed with kinematics based on a cylindrical coordinate system as the robot is moving on a cylindrical surface. The main purpose is to promote a smooth and stable tracking performance during inspection tasks, under the consideration of the robot’s kinematic constraints and the magnetic restrictions of the adhesion system. The simulation results indicate that the proposed sliding mode controller can quickly correct the errors and global asymptotic stability is achieved. The prototype experimental results further validate the advancement of the proposed method; the wall-climbing robot can track both longitudinal and horizontal spatial trajectories stably with high precision. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Mechatronics: Design, Control and Applications)
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19 pages, 9000 KiB  
Article
A Novel Space Robot with Triple Cable-Driven Continuum Arms for Space Grasping
by Yicheng Dai, Zuan Li, Xinjie Chen, Xin Wang and Han Yuan
Micromachines 2023, 14(2), 416; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14020416 - 10 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1777
Abstract
With the increasing demand of human beings for space exploration, space robots show great development potential. When grasping space objects with different sizes and shapes, cable-driven continuum arms have better performance than traditional robots. In this paper, a novel space robot with triple [...] Read more.
With the increasing demand of human beings for space exploration, space robots show great development potential. When grasping space objects with different sizes and shapes, cable-driven continuum arms have better performance than traditional robots. In this paper, a novel space robot with triple cable-driven continuum arms is proposed, which can achieve compliant grasping through multi-arm cooperation. The kinematic model of the robot is proposed and verified through simulations and experiments. Results show that the maximum repeat positioning error is no larger than 1 mm and the maximum tracking error is no larger than 2 mm, compared to the 300 mm long arm. In addition, the demonstration experiment of grasping a ball indicates the good performance of the robot in compliant grasping. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Mechatronics: Design, Control and Applications)
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16 pages, 4350 KiB  
Article
Design and Analysis of a Hybrid Displacement Amplifier Supporting a High-Performance Piezo Jet Dispenser
by Shuai Zhou and Peng Yan
Micromachines 2023, 14(2), 322; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14020322 - 27 Jan 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1293
Abstract
In this study, a compliant amplifier powered by a piezoelectric stack is designed to meet high-performance dispensing operation requirements. By studying the issue of low frequency bandwidth on the traditional bridge-type amplifier mechanism, we propose a displacement amplifier mechanism, hybrid bridge-lever-bridge (HBLB), that [...] Read more.
In this study, a compliant amplifier powered by a piezoelectric stack is designed to meet high-performance dispensing operation requirements. By studying the issue of low frequency bandwidth on the traditional bridge-type amplifier mechanism, we propose a displacement amplifier mechanism, hybrid bridge-lever-bridge (HBLB), that enhances its dynamic performance by combining the traditional bridge-type and lever mechanism. A guiding beam is added to further improve its output stiffness with a guaranteed large amplification ratio. An analytical model has been developed to describe the full elastic deformation behavior of the HBLB mechanism that considers the lateral displacement loss of the input end, followed by a verification through a finite element analysis (FEA). Results revealed that the working principle of the HBLB optimizes the structural parameters using the finite element method. Finally, a prototype of the displacement amplifier was fabricated for performance tests. Static and dynamic test results revealed that the proposed mechanism can reach a travel range of 223.2 μm, and the frequency bandwidth is 1.184 kHz, which meets the requirements of a high-performance piezo jet dispenser. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Mechatronics: Design, Control and Applications)
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21 pages, 13197 KiB  
Article
A Modified Robotic Manipulator Controller Based on Bernstein-Kantorovich-Stancu Operator
by Qianqian Zhang, Mingye Mu and Xingyu Wang
Micromachines 2023, 14(1), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14010044 - 24 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1569
Abstract
With the development of intelligent manufacturing and mechatronics, robotic manipulators are used more widely. There are complex noises and external disturbances in many application cases that affect the control accuracy of the manipulator servo system. On the basis of previous research, this paper [...] Read more.
With the development of intelligent manufacturing and mechatronics, robotic manipulators are used more widely. There are complex noises and external disturbances in many application cases that affect the control accuracy of the manipulator servo system. On the basis of previous research, this paper improves the manipulator controller, introduces the Bernstein–Kantorovich–Stancu (BKS) operator, and proposes a modified robotic manipulator controller to improve the error tracking accuracy of the manipulator controller when observing complex disturbances and noises. In addition, in order to solve the problem that the coupling between the external disturbances of each axis of the manipulator leads to a large amount of computation when observing disturbances, an improved full-order observer is designed, which simplifies the parameters of the controller combined with the BKS operator and reduces the complexity of the algorithm. Through a theoretical analysis and a simulation test, it was verified that the proposed manipulator controller could effectively suppress external disturbance and noise, and the application of the BKS operator in the manipulator servo system control is feasible and effective. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Mechatronics: Design, Control and Applications)
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19 pages, 8803 KiB  
Article
Modeling and Analysis of Radial Electromagnetic Force and Vibration Characteristics Based on Deflection Dual-Stator Switched Reluctance Generator
by Zheng Li, Libo Liu, Pengju Wang, Yu Liu, Xiaopeng Wei, Qianqian Xu and Hexu Sun
Micromachines 2022, 13(9), 1494; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13091494 - 08 Sep 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1585
Abstract
In this paper, a mechanical model of the deflection dual-stator switched reluctance generator (DDSRG) is developed, and the advantages of the dual-stator structure for the deflecting motion are analyzed. Secondly, the spatio-temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of the inhomogeneous electromagnetic force are derived [...] Read more.
In this paper, a mechanical model of the deflection dual-stator switched reluctance generator (DDSRG) is developed, and the advantages of the dual-stator structure for the deflecting motion are analyzed. Secondly, the spatio-temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of the inhomogeneous electromagnetic force are derived analytically and further verified by fast Fourier transform (FFT).Thirdly, the spatial and temporal distributions of electromagnetic forces of DDSRG are calculated based on finite element software, and the distributions of electromagnetic forces under different motion states are analyzed. By combining the analysis of modal analysis and harmonic response analysis, the free mode and vibration response acceleration variation laws of the internal and external stator are determined. The results show that the order of electromagnetic forces on the stator at rated speed is mainly 8 times the fundamental frequency, and the modal vibration order is more violent in the order of 2–7. Finally, the experimental platform of DDSRG is built, and the vibration characteristics are tested to verify the validity and accuracy of the proposed simulation results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Mechatronics: Design, Control and Applications)
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15 pages, 9172 KiB  
Article
A Study on the Detent Torque and Holding Torque of a Micro-Claw Pole Stepper Motor
by Xiaofei Xi, Yan Sun, Xudong Wang, Yuanxu Xin and Yong Yang
Micromachines 2022, 13(6), 931; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13060931 - 11 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2245
Abstract
The micro-claw pole stepper motor is widely used in the field of camera modules and VR focusing. The influence of torque ripple on positioning accuracy becomes more obvious with a decrease in motor volume. In order to reduce the torque ripple of the [...] Read more.
The micro-claw pole stepper motor is widely used in the field of camera modules and VR focusing. The influence of torque ripple on positioning accuracy becomes more obvious with a decrease in motor volume. In order to reduce the torque ripple of the micro-claw stepper motor and increase the load capacity of the motor, the torque of the motor is simulated by using finite element software. Firstly, the influences of four parameters, namely air gap, magnet thickness, claw thickness and claw height, on the detent torque and holding torque of the claw permanent magnet stepper motor are obtained through the Taguchi experiment. The Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of each factor to the response was calculated and the degree of influence of the four parameters on the detent torque and holding torque of the micro-claw pole permanent magnet stepper motor was determined. Then, the optimal value of each factor to reduce the detent torque and increase the holding torque was obtained through optimization analysis. Finally, experiments were carried out to test the holding torque of the motor, and the accuracy of the results was verified by comparing the test values with the simulation values. According to the analysis of the paper, the response delta of air gap to detent torque is the largest, reaching 5.99, and that to holding torque is 0.73. The response delta of the magnet thickness to the detent torque is 5.87, and the response delta to the holding torque is 1.52. The optimized parameters obtained by optimization analysis reduce the detent torque of the motor by 26.74% and increase the holding torque by 18.35%. It is found that air gap and permanent magnet thickness have the greatest influence on the detent torque and holding torque of a micro-claw permanent magnet stepper motor, followed by claw thickness and claw height. Among them, the air gap has more influence on the detent torque than on the holding torque, and the thickness of the permanent magnet has more influence on the holding torque than on the detent torque. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Mechatronics: Design, Control and Applications)
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