Development of a Control Module for a Digital Electromagnetic Actuators Array

In this paper, a digital actuators array composed of 25 elementary digital actuators placed in a 5 × 5 matrix configuration is presented. The originality of the elementary digital actuator lies in its ability to reach four discrete positions in a horizontal xy-plane. An analytical model of the array is presented and has been used to design an experimental prototype. A control module is proposed to independently or simultaneously control the elementary actuators along two displacement axes. This module is based on a control strategy and on a dedicated electrical control circuit which reduces the number of channels needed to control the array. The proposed control strategy is based on position and displacement matrices to characterize the desired motion of each elementary actuator. Experimental tests of the actuators array are presented in the paper to validate the control module. Finally, an application of the array as a xy-plane displacement device is shown.