A New Insect-Scale Piezoelectric Robot With Asymmetric Structure

Abstract

To realize the switching of the multiple locomotion modes, a new insect-scale piezoelectric robot with asymmetric structure is proposed, fabricated, and tested. The robot prototype has a weight of 32.8 g and size of 55 ×50 ×20 mm. Driven by two pieces of piezoelectric ceramics, working at six vibration modes, the piezoelectric robot can realize two kinds of linear motion and four kinds of circular motion by contact friction. Performance assessments show that the robot has a maximum velocity of 155 mm/s and a minimum motion radius of 45 mm. In addition, the robot can move at a speed up to 97 mm/s (100 Vp-p) with an integrated drive device (45.7 g). The insect-scale piezoelectric robot has simple structure, but has multiple motion modes, large speed range, good output characteristics, and fast response time, which provides a new idea for the design and driving of microrobot.