A novel stick-slip type piezoelectric rotary actuator is proposed in this paper. The actuator equips with a parallelogram driving mechanism to generate a pair of variable force couple to drive the rotor. Two piezo-stacks are used to deform the parallelogram driving mechanism to realize large range motions with high resolution in both forward and backward directions. By utilizing pseudo-rigid-body method, geometric model of the parallelogram driving mechanism is established to analyze the motion of the actuator. Finite element analysis is conducted to simulate the deformation of the driving mechanism. A prototype is fabricated and a series of experiments are carried out. The experimental results indicate that the actuator prototype can achieve various angular velocities by changing the driving voltage and frequency and it can output large range rotary motions in both forward and backward directions. The driving resolutions are 0.75 μ rad in forward direction and 0.82 μ rad in backward direction and the maximum loading capacities are 74 N and 78 N, respectively. The angular displacement outputs under various driving voltages and frequencies show good linear relationships with the time in both forward and backward motions.

A stepping type piezoelectric linear actuator based on compliant foot driving is proposed in this paper. With the help of four piezo-stacks and four compliant feet, the designed actuator can produce large range linear motions in both positive and negative directions with high accuracy. The mechanical structure and the operating principle are discussed. Mohr integration method is used to analyze the deformation of the key component compliant foot. To investigate the working performance, a prototype is fabricated and a series of experiments are carried out. The experimental results indicate that the displacement outputs under various driving voltages and various driving frequencies show good linear relationships with the time. The driving resolution and the maximum output force are 10.98 nm and 43 N, respectively. The displacements deviation between the forward and backward motions within 30 steps is 6.82 μ m and the amplitude of the parasitic motions is about 0.638 μ m. The experimental results also confirm that the designed actuator can achieve various speeds by changing the driving voltage and driving frequency.

In the field of micromanipulation, accurate identification and localization of micro-targets are crucial. This article presents a robust high-precision micromanipulation targets localization and motion tracking algorithm to address the challenges posed by uneven illumination, shadows, object occlusion, and image noise in micromanipulation. The proposed method employs improved bilateral filtering and the Sobel operator for illumination correction and edge contour detection in the horizontal view, achieving identification and Z-directional localization of micro-targets. In the vertical view, the improved grayscale template and the feature point matching algorithms accurately identify micro-targets and locate manipulation points in the X/Y directions, even under occlusion and rotation. Experimental results demonstrate that the algorithm can identify and localize micro-targets with an average error less than 1 μm and an average time of 120 ms, significantly improving the success rate, accuracy, and efficiency compared to existing methods. This article provides a novel approach for the precise automation of micromanipulation tasks.

In this paper, we present an extrusion printing technique for producing spherical and cylindrical plano-convex microlens arrays with controllable feature dimensions. This technique employs a robotic adhesive dispenser for robotically controlled microextrusion of ultraviolet (UV) curable polymer onto a glass substrate surface to directly deposit the microlens arrays. It provides a simple and flexible alternative to fabricate both spherical and cylindrical microlens arrays.