Development and evaluation of a bipedal stepping piezoelectric actuator based on stick–slip principle

In this work, a novel bipedal stepping piezoelectric actuator based on stick-slip principle is proposed. An integrated stator with symmetrically positioned dual driving feet has been developed, characterized by its element analysis. Key structural parameters were optimized, and a prototype was fabricated for a series of experiments. The experimental results demonstrate that the actuator attains a maximum output speed of 4550 μm/s at a voltage of 150 V and a frequency of 350 Hz. The stepping efficiency is measured at 0.886, with a maximum horizontal load capacity of 170 g. Furthermore, the actuator exhibits a displacement resolution of 180 nm, making it highly suitable for precision actuation and applications in fields such as biomedical engineering.