Design of a PZT-actuated proportional drum brake

Presents the design of a piezoelectric-ceramic (PZT)-stack-actuated brake that is similar to a magnetic particle brake in dynamic range, size, weight, and cost, while providing a significantly larger bandwidth and requiring significantly less electrical power for a given continuous torque output. The device is essentially a single-pad drum brake that is actuated with a PZT-stack actuator. A significant component of the design is the compliant-mechanism-based transmission utilized to transmit the PZT-stack actuation into brake pad motion. Following the device description, experimental data is presented to characterize the performance of the brake. The performance characteristics are subsequently compared to those of a commercially available magnetic particle brake of comparable size and weight.