Actuation and control by giant magnetostriction

This paper describes the development of actuators based on the giant magnetostrictive material Terfenol-D, including a novel mechanically self-biasing actuator. The range of applications open to these actuators such as linear micropositioning and active vibration control are discussed with appropriate case studies. Specialised control strategies and algorithms are described based on digital variable structure control principles to compensate for the material´s nonlinear behaviour characteristics, i.e. hysterectic, static and dynamic load dependency. Implementation on the appropriate microcontroller are given with the case studies