A ball-cage structure piezoelectric actuator for 2-DOF pointing mechanism

Abstract The pointing mechanism is a very common mechanical device and has a wide applications in the aerospace field. Most of the traditional pointing mechanisms are driven by electromagnetic motors and hydraulics, which make it difficult to meet the demands of high precision and customization. In this paper, a ball-cage structure piezoelectric actuator is proposed for the spherical 2-DOF pointing mechanism, which to switch the direction of the degrees of freedom by changing the excitation mode. Through the machining of the prototype and experimental analysis, the prototype can reach a speed of 533 deg/s and has a resolution of 42 μrad, which can meet the demand of high-precision application of pointing mechanism.