Abstract
We fabricated the millimeter-scale robot by metal-based PZT thin-film actuator. PZT thin films were directly deposited on 50-μm-thick Ti substrates by rf-magnetron sputtering. Piezoelectric actuators have simple structure and drive by low voltage. Therefore, in recent year, the robot using piezoelectric materials have been studied. However, piezoelectric actuators cannot generate a large displacement. In this study, we fabricated the millimeter-scale robot(7.5×2.5 cm^2) actuated using resonance since the largest displacement can be generated at the resonance. The movement of the robot depends on the angle between front and rear legs θ and the frequency f of the applied voltage. Under the condition of θ = 123° and f = 10.6 kHz, the robot moved forward at a speed of 6.74 cm/s. On the other hand, under the condition of θ = 123° and f = 5.4 kHz, the robot moved backward at a speed of 1.21 cm/s.
