Static behavior of a piezoelectric micro robot

This paper presents a study of the behavior of piezoelectric micro robot to three degrees of freedom (longitudinal movement, transversal movement and rotation) foreseen to work on flat surfaces. Its main merits are its ability to perform micro-scale displacements and to support heavy pre-loads. An adequate interface is developed, allowing the control of the system. Even, a phase sensitive vision method is developed to sense the position and the heading angle with an accuracy better than 0.2 pixel i.e. 12 /spl mu/m with an observed field of about 4/spl times/3 cm/sup 2/. A personnel computer controls the whole system.