Novel test environment for the development of self-sensing piezoelectric actuators

Following the development of a Self-Sensing Actuation (SSA) model for piezoelectric bimorph cantilevers and the fabrication of an optimised actuator design, it became necessary to experimentally validate the model. Hence a novel test environment is presented, with the principal aim of demonstrating the validity of the model. Additionally, a secondary functionality of the test environment would be to serve as a workbench for the future development of SSA implementations tailored to that piezoelectric actuator. Assumptions on the charge-based SSA implementation of the actuator, along with the latter's characteristics, are first formulated in order to derive the needed features for the system. The drive electronics and the strategy for accurately measuring nC charges with an electrometer are then discussed. The mechanical implementation of the test environment is then described along with the considered measurement strategies. Finally, the results of the first measurements on a batch of the optimised piezoelectric bimorphs that were fabricated are discussed. While an estimation error was found due to inaccuracies of the considered actuator model, the test environment is shown to be efficient for the automated and systematic testing of a batch of piezoelectric actuator characteristics.