In this paper, a new type of actuator was presented. The actuator has two modes, stepping and scanning modes. The stepping mode can achieve large stroke through motion accumulation, while the scanning mode can enable high-resolution driving. The mechanical structure and the operating principles of the actuator were described. The structure and the model of the clamping units and driving unit were designed by theoretical modeling and finite element simulation analysis. Finally, a prototype was fabricated, and the experiment results revealed that the actuator achieves a maximum speed of 367 μm/s and a resolution of 0.02 μm.
Li et al. (Tue,) studied this question.