Abstract
We present a pipe inspection robot using a newly developed spherical ultrasonic motor (SUSM) as a camera actuator. The novel SUSM has improved the range of movement compared to previous SUSMs, and the robot can point a camera in any direction. In this study, we determined a method for controlling the rotational direction and strategic control from the kinematics and characteristics of ultrasonic motors. The rotational directions were defined by the phase differences of the applied voltages, and the rotational speeds were changed with the frequencies. Additionally, we developed a very small position sensing system using rotary potentiometers. In the control experiment performed using the sensing system, the SUSM showed the returnability to the default position from several specified points, within an accuracy of 1°.
About this article
Received
01 September 2011
Accepted
04 December 2011
Published
31 December 2011
Keywords
ultrasonic motor
pipe inspection
PZT
spherical motor
Copyright © 2011 Vibroengineering
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
