In this paper, a piezoelectrically actuated four-bar mechanism with two flexible links is proposed to be used in a micromechanical flying insect robot wing thorax for stroke amplification. PZT-5H and PZN-PT based unimorph actuators are utilized at the input link of the four-bar for a compact and light weight thorax transmission mechanism. The kinematics and dynamics of the proposed wing structu...

This paper analyzes soft actuators realized as unimorph cantilever beams, in which the active layer can have two different morphologies, i.e., either an extruded film or aligned electrospun nanofiber mat of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorotrifluoroethylene). Six are fabricated, with layers varying thicknesses and to study electrostrictive effect polymer evaluate stiffening prop...

A unimorph piezoelectric cantilever equipped with an Acoustic Black Hole (ABH) termination is designed for broadband energy harvesting. The ABH termination, its tapered region, induces a focusing of the flexural vibrations which can be used to increase efficiency harvesting device. modal-based analytical model presented, providing explicit form electro-mechanical coupling each beam eigenmode. C...