Development of an ultrasonic brake

In the present paper, a newly developed ultrasonic brake is proposed. The ultrasonic brake can solve problems of conventional passive elements, such as time delay, instability, and large size, by using unique characteristics of ultrasonic motor, as fast response, silent motion, and non-magnetic feature. It can also be desiged to be smaller than conventional elements due to is simple structure. The brake locks or releases the rotor by use of ultrasonic levitation phenomenon. First, we have designed the structure of the ultrasonic brake using an equation of ultrasonic levitation phenomenon, results from structural analysis and finite element (FE) analysis of piezoelectric material of the vibrator. Then we have manufactured the ultrasonic brake and have conducted a driving experiment. Finally, we have demonstrated that the maximum levitation force is around 40 N and the friction torque of the ultrasonic brake is up to 0.38 N·m. Moreover, we have confirmed that both response time and torque/inertia ratio of the ultrasonic brake are much more superior to the conventional ones.