Actuators, Volume 14, Issue 6

Smart tools are limited by actuation–sensing integration and structural redundancy, making it difficult to achieve compactness, ultra-precision feed, and immediate feedback. This paper proposes a self-sensing giant magnetostrictive actuator-bas...

This study presents the design, optimization, and experimental validation of a large-air-gap voice coil motor (LAG-VCM) for high-precision magnetic levitation vibration isolation in vacuum environments. Key challenges arising from a large air gap, in...

This study develops a sampled-data controller for the path tracking system of an autonomous agricultural tractor (AAT) on the basis of a state observer. First of all, to solve the cost of the whole system, the state observer is constructed for estima...

The inspection of oil storage tanks is a critical measure to prevent the risk of oil leakage. Therefore, research has focused on magnet-type climbing robots for automated tank inspections. While existing magnet-type climbing robots have demonstrated...

This study presents a numerical investigation of the internal flow characteristics within the draft tube of a Kaplan turbine using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The distribution and evolution of vortical structures, particularly the formation a...

In this study, to address the problems of the redundant safety and mass production of electro-mechanical braking (EMB) structures that are widely used in distributed drive electric vehicles (DDEV), we designed a compact dual-disc electromagnetic&ndas...

Abdominal massage for constipation has problems such as high labor costs, insufficient standardization, and large differences in efficacy. This study aims to develop a new type of abdominal massage robot to break through the bottlenecks of manual abd...

To advance the construction of intelligent mining, electro-hydraulic digital control technology has emerged as a critical direction for the digital transformation of mining machinery. This study proposes a digital control scheme based on the pressure...

This paper proposes an improved analytical model for a line-start explosion-proof magnet synchronous motor that considers the effect of magnetic bridge saturation. Under the condition of maintaining the air-gap magnetic field unchanged, and taking in...

To address the deployment accuracy issues of multi-frequency band reflector antennas, this study takes a hexagonal prism modular deployable antenna as an example and proposes an accuracy design method. This paper proposes a screw-theory-based sub-cha...

Helical idler gear transmission systems can adapt to high-speed, heavy-load working environments and are thus widely used in aerospace, shipbuilding, and other heavy industry sectors. Root crack is one of the common fault types. Prior studies general...

This paper presents a three-degrees-of-freedom origami parallel robot that is free from parasitic motion. This robot is designed to achieve one translational and two rotational motions within its workspace, enabling precise orientation about a fixed...

This study introduces a flywheel rotor support structure for an active magnetic suspension flywheel energy storage system. In this structure, there is an axial offset between the axial-bearing position and the mass-center of the flywheel rotor, which...

This study provides the design, analysis, and prototype fabrication of a remotely controlled actuation system for railcar-mounted sensors. Frequent railway inspections are essential for detecting and preventing major defects that could lead to train...

This paper presents a robust tracking control strategy for servo systems with unknown backlash, employing adaptive parameter identification to address performance degradation caused by backlash nonlinearities. In high-precision positioning and rapid-...

Robotic tack welding poses challenges in path optimization due to local optimum entrapment, limited adaptability, and high-dimensional complexity. To overcome these challenges, a Lévy flight-enhanced improved whale optimization algorithm (LF-I...

Dog clutches are superior to synchromesh units due to much less wear caused by friction but require an external torque source to synchronize the rotation speeds. The current trend in e-mobility to use the driving motor of an electric vehicle as this...

This paper proposes an A-shape hybrid levitation system combining high-temperature superconducting (HTS) maglev and permanent magnet levitation (PML) technologies to address the lateral instability of the PML system. By tilting the PM arrays and HTS...

Solving the common paradoxical problem between sub-micro-arc level resolution and a wide range of rotation angles in rotary actuators, this paper designs a single-drive compliant rotary mechanism (CRM) and develops a cross-scale compliant rotary actu...

Electric helicopters represent a pivotal component in the advancement of urban air mobility (UAM), with considerable potential for future development. The electric propulsion system (EPS) is the core component of these systems. However, the inherent...

The application fields of high-speed submersible permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) are constantly expanding. Especially in high-risk and complex environments such as oil exploration, offshore oil exploitation, and deep well operation, the re...

Positioning servo systems utilizing permanent magnet synchronous linear motors (PMSLMs) are conventionally governed by cascaded P-PI controllers, which, despite their simplicity and robustness, suffer from limited tracking and anti-disturbance perfor...

The thin and straight horn of the ultrasonic transducer is located in the center of the thick transducer, so that the tool tip of the ultrasonic vibration turning tool holder cannot be located on the outermost side of the entire tool holder, which le...

Non-contact surface processing does not involve direct contact between the tool and a worksurface. An industrial robot mostly uses preplanned toolpaths to perform non-contact surface processing. A preplanned toolpath may work well in repetitive condi...

Tendon-driven robots offer advantages in terms of their compliance, lightweight design, and remote actuation, making them ideal for applications requiring dexterity and safety. However, existing tendon-driven actuators often suffer from low integrati...

Ensuring the reliability and stability of lower limb rehabilitation exoskeleton robots during rehabilitation training is of paramount importance. Sensor faults in such systems can degrade overall performance and may even pose significant safety hazar...

Achieving excellent speed control in permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) relies on the simultaneous suppression of both aperiodic and periodic disturbances. This paper presents an enhanced Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) strategy...

Detection gain asymmetry error is one of the primary errors of the hemispherical resonator gyroscope (HRG) in whole-angle (WA) mode. This paper analyzes the influence of detection gain asymmetry error and its coupling error with damping and stiffness...

Physiological organ motion, such as breathing movement, presents a challenge in the development of medical robots for autonomous wound closure. The robot’s task is to determine the wound’s pose and relay magnetic fixtures near the wound e...

Rotary drilling systems with PDC bits, commonly used for drilling deep wells in the production and exploration of oil and natural gas, frequently encounter severe vibrations. These vibrations can cause significant damage to the drilling system, parti...

This paper proposes a robot trajectory planning method focused on time and jerk optimization under compound constraints. First, the robot path-tracking task is parameterized by incorporating both kinematic and dynamic constraints in joint and Cartesi...

To effectively suppress spindle vibrations in rotating machinery, magnetorheological (MR) dampers, as an ideal vibration control device, have attracted attention. To enhance the vibration damping effect, in the paper, a MR damper vibration with a mul...

Free-form surface polishing is a key process in precision machining within high-end manufacturing, where optimizing the polishing trajectory directly influences both processing quality and efficiency. Traditional trajectory planning methods for free-...

Wall-climbing robots have broad application potential in industrial equipment inspection, chemical storage tank maintenance, and high-altitude operations. However, their practical implementation is challenged by the robots’ adhesion requirement...

Pneumatic soft manipulators are one of the current development trends in the field of manipulators. The soft manipulator that has been developed at present still has problems with single function and poor load-bearing capacity. This paper designs a c...

In this paper, a new consensus tracking control algorithm is proposed for discrete multi-agent systems under binary communication with noise and a time-varying reference state. Unlike previous studies, the leader’s reference state is time-varyi...

This paper proposes a robust impedance controller to address the performance limitations of mechanical impedance rendering in robotic joints, enabling stable interaction with passive environments. Considering structured uncertainties, such as dynamic...

Friction–inertia piezoelectric actuators can perform long-range positioning with nanometer resolution. However, friction and inertia are not easy to control and can influence the actuator’s performance. The present study proposes a fricti...

Wind turbines align with the wind direction and adjust to wind speed by rotating their nacelle and blades using electromechanical or hydraulic actuators. Due to the fact that the rated capacity of wind turbines is increasing and that the actuators ar...

To improve the control accuracy and interference resistance of actuator control systems in complex environments, a complete actuator control system solution has been designed. The system uses an STM32 controller as the core processing unit, integrati...

Rapid advancement in the nanotechnology and semiconductor industries has driven the demand for fast, precise measurement systems. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a standout metrology technique due to its high precision and wide applicability. Howeve...

With the enhancement of safety performance requirements in the car manufacturing field, the quality standards for the sheet molding process have imposed higher demands. However, during the pressure-building phase of pump-controlled hydraulic die cush...

Today’s exoskeletons face challenges with low fluency (a quantifiable alternative to “seamlessness”), hypothesized to be caused by a lag in active control innate in many leader–follower paradigms seen in contemporary systems,...

This study presents an optimized design and vision-guided control strategy for a multi-functional robotic gripper integrated into an automatic loading system for warehouse environments. The system adopts a modular architecture, including standardized...

Electroactive polymers (EAPs) represent a versatile class of smart materials capable of converting electrical stimuli into mechanical motion and vice versa, positioning them as key components in the next generation of actuators and sensors. This revi...

Electroactive polymers (EAPs) have emerged as versatile materials for self-powered actuators and biosensors, revolutionizing biomedical diagnostics and healthcare technologies. These materials harness various energy harvesting mechanisms, including p...