A microactuator is a microscopic servomechanism that supplies and transmits a measured amount of energy for the operation of another mechanism or system. As a general actuator, following standards have to be met:
Large travel High precision Fast switching Low power consumption Power free force sustainability For microactuator, there are two in addition
Microstructurability Integrability
Principle of microactuators The basic principle can be described as the expression for mechanical work
W = F → ⋅ Δ r → {\displaystyle W={\overrightarrow {F}}\cdot \Delta {\overrightarrow {r}}} since an actuator is to manipulate positions and therefore force is needed. For different kind of microactuators, different physical principles are applied.
Classes of microactuators Sources:
Electrostatic Electromagnetic Piezoelectric Fluid Thermal
See also Newton's laws Euler–Bernoulli beam equation Electrostatics Electromagnetism Piezoelectricity Microfluidics Sensors Nanotube nanomotor
References