Ultrasonic Actuators, Motors and Sensors

This homepage covers the advanced actuators activity of the JPL's NDEAA Technologies Lab.

The initial phase of this effort was focused on ultrasonic motors. This part was done jointly with QMI (Costa Mesa, CA) and it was funded as a Telerobotic subtask of the Planetary Dextereous Manipulator (PDM) task that was managed by Dr. Hari Das. The Program Managers at JPL were Dr. Chuck Weisbin and later Dr. Samad Hayati and at NASA HQ, Code S, Dave Lavery.

USM simulation
Ultrasonic Motors
bulletRotary Ultrasonic Motors - SPIE, San Diego, CA March 1997
bulletRotary Ultrasonic Motors - SPIE, San Diego, CA March 1998
bulletPlanetary Dexterous Manipulators* - SPIE, Newport Beach, CA March 1999, paper #3668-17
bulletRotary Ultrasonic Motors - SPIE, Newport Beach, CA, March 1999 paper #3668-63

bullet"Complete Modeling of Rotary Ultrasonic Motors Actuated By Traveling Flexural Waves," SPIE Smart Structures 2000, paper 3992-103


Actuators
bullet"Enabling Novel Space and Terrestrial Applications Using Transducing Materials at JPL," SPIE's Transducing Materials and Devices, Brugge, Belgium, Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 2002, paper 4946-02


Sensors
"BAW and SAW sensors for In-situ analysis," Paper 5050-11, Proceedings of the SPIE Smart Structures Conference, San Diego, CA., Mar 2-6. 2003


Patents related to Actuators
Y. Bar-Cohen, S.-S. Lih and W. Grandia, "High Torque Ultrasonic Motor System Using A Series of Connected Individual Motors and a Stack of Piezoelectric Drivers," NTR, Item No. 9447, Docket 19835, Nov. 14, 1995 (Patent Pending).
bullet "Multiphase backing materials for piezoelectric broadband transducers," Patent No. 4,482,835, November 13, 1984
bullet "Multiphase backing materials for piezoelectric broadband transducers," Patent No. 4,581,070, April 8, 1986
bullet "Multiphase backing materials for piezoelectric broadband transducers," Patent No. 4,582,680, April 15, 1986
bullet "Broad band acoustic transducer," Patent No. 4,698,541, October 6, 1987


Web addresses for other USM sources
bulletMIT's webpage - table comparing USM and conventional motors
bulletMIT's webpage - table comparing various actuators
bullet Ultrasonic motors websites list
bullet Ultrasonic motors at Harbin Institute, China
bulletCEDRAT Recherche's Piezoactive motors
bulletHigh-Power Electrostatic Motor
bulletPiemo ApS, Kvistgaard, Denmark



Links to actuator websites
bullet Manufacturers of piezoceramics
bulletIntelligent Materials website
bulletPiezo Systems, Inc.
bulletUCLA Active Materials lab
bulletShape Change Technologies
bulletCenter for Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, Virginia Tech
bulletNebulasearch - actuators



Sensors
bullet"Sandia National Lab - Microsensors R&D"



Return to the JPL's NDEAA Webhub

Last update April 10, 2000