Physics-based modelling of a piezoelectric actuator using genetic algorithm

A number of models have been presented to estimate the displacement of piezoelectric actuators; these models remove the need for accurate displacement sensors used in nanopositioning. Physics based models, inspired by physical phenomena, are widely used for this purpose due to their accuracy and comparatively low number of parameters. The common issue of these models is the lack of a non-ad-hoc and reliable method to estimate their parameters. Parameter identification of a widely accepted physics-based model, introduced by Voigt, is addressed in this paper. Non-linear governing equation of this model consists of five parameters needing to be identified. This research aims at developing/adopting an optimal and standard (non-ad-hoc) parameter identification algorithm to accurately determine the parameters of the model and, in a more general view, all physics-based models of piezoelectric actuators. In this paper, Genetic Algorithm (GA) which is a global optimisation method is employed to identify the model parameters.