Piezoelectric Composite Cymbal-driven Microtubule-based Robotics Research

Although the spatial curved micro-pipe has been used in several industrial fields like the aeronautic and aerospace, the nautical, the chemical, the mobile and the nuclear-powered plants, the nondestructive inspection for the inside surface and 3D geometrical reconstruction are still the technical bottleneck to restrict its applications. So, the in-pipe micro-robot for ingoing nondestructive inspection has been attracted more attentions in the world.After summarizing the history of robots, the domestic and foreign research status of the in-pipe micro-robot and the key technologies to be solved, this dissertation put forward to research a kind of automatically positioning in-pipe micro-robot, which was actuated by piezoelectric cymbals based on the theory of inertia driving, depending on the problems of spatial curved pipe inspection and geometrical reconstruction.The dissertation discussed the in-pipe micro-robot system on the two functional parts, the robot moving power system and the robot moving positioning system.Firstly, aiming at the robot power system, a kind of composite piezoelectric transducer, piezoelectric cymbal, was researched and developed. To improve the properties, a slotting structural optimization of piezoelectric cymbal was brought forward. Through the mechanism modeling and model analysis, finite element analysis (FEA), and experiments, it was demonstrated that the slotted cymbal possessed more advanced properties in output displacement and force, and energy transmission. Based on the theory of inertia driving, a piezoelectric cymbal actuator moving in 1 Omm diameters was designed and manufactured for the in-pipe micro-robot, and its theoretical dynamic model and expression of state space were set up based on the vibration theory. Through the mode analysis and the computer simulation analysis, the moving mechanism of the actuator was expounded. Experiments on the actuator about the speed, the load characteristic, and adaptability to the pipes had been carried out, and the results showed the actuator had advanced kinetic properties.Secondly, in order to perform the moving positioning in the curved pipe of 10mm in diameters, a style of inchworm-like moving positioning system was developed, which adopted incorporate design of two piezoelectric cymbal actuators with a mechanical-contact positioning mechanism. The system was designed to have high positioning accuracy based on the high response of the actuators. In collaboration with experiments, the theoretical analysis explained the impact induced by the mechanical contact was benign to ensure the high positioning accuracy. Although the inchworm-like moving positioning system succeeded in the application, the step distance was hard to be small enough to have higher positioning resolution. Therefore, in chapter 5, a theory of two-dimensional optical positioning based on...