Robot-assisted surgery based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can help surgeons perform operations more precisely with its real-time imaging capability. However, the magnetic field within MRI narrows down the available actuators and effectors. Many pieces of research have proved that electrical powered non-ferromagnetic motors based on piezoelectric elements to be well suited for MRI compatible robots, while the planar rotary design will lead to multiple problems. In this thesis, we designed and fabricated a customized stator for a piezoelectric actuator that has a hollow cylindrical shape, and validated it with simulation and practical experiments. We first performed a FEM simulation to find the excitation frequencies of the piezoelectric element (PZT-5H) and the displacement of multiple points on the surface of stator assembly where coupling with rotors that we designed. Then, two real stator assemblies with multiple stator prototypes were manufactured to validate the practical performance comparing to the simulation. The performance of the stator assembly matched the simulation result with a maximum error of ±2.6% and an average error of ±0.6% among the second to the fifth excitation modes. The change of performance of the stator assembly while in different excitation mode are also discussed in this thesis.

Creator

• Wang, Yang

Contributors

• Fischer, Gregory S.
• Xiao, Jing
• Zhang, Haichong

Degree

• MS

Unit

• Robotics Engineering

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• etd-21836

Keyword

• FEM Simulation
• Piezoelectric Actuator

Advisor

• Fischer, Gregory S.

Orcid

• https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2345-4729

Committee

• Xiao, Jing
• Zhang, Haichong

Defense date

• 2021-05-03

Year

• 2021

Sponsor

• NIH R01 CA166379

Date created

• 2021-05-04

Resource type

• Thesis

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2021-11-01