Modeling and control of piezoelectric inertia–friction actuators: review and future research directions

Abstract. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature regarding the modeling and control of piezoelectric inertia–friction actuators (PIFAs). Examples of PIFAs are impact drive mechanisms (IDMs) and friction-driving actuators (FDAs). In this paper, the critical challenges are first identified in modeling and control of PIFAs. Second, a general architecture of PIFAs is proposed to facilitate the analysis and classification of the literature regarding modeling and control of PIFAs. This general architecture covers all types of PIFAs (e.g., FDAs, IDMs) and thus serves as a general conceptual model of PIFAs. There is an additional benefit with this general architecture of PIFAs, namely that it is conducive to innovation in PIFAs, as new specific PIFAs may be designed in order to tailor to a specific application (for example, both FDAs and IDMs are viewed as specific PIFAs). Finally, the paper presents future directions in modeling and control for further improvement of the performance of PIFAs.