Improvement of driving efficiency of ultrasonic motor by improvement of vibration configuration

An ultrasonic motor is generally composed of a vibrator and a rotor, and is driven by the frictional force between the vibrator/rotor. Since the contact points on the vibrator draw elliptic trajectory, relative speed of the point against the rotor varies even when the rotor rotates with a constant speed. This may cause abrasion between the vibrator/rotor and decrease in driving efficiency. This research proposes a novel method to reduce the relative speed to improve the driving efficiency of ultrasonic motors by superimposing harmonic vibrations with driving vibration. Results of numerical calculation show that driving efficiency may be improved by 27% by the proposed method.