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Piezoelectrics are increasingly being used in a large number of research explorations and engineering applications. In industry, piezoelectrics are widely being accepted as sensors, giving engineers more leverage to add new features to their products. In recent years, for example, distributed piezoelectric sensors and actuators are widely used in active vibration control of structures or precision mechatronic and structronic systems. In this paper, a piezoelectric quad-morph based multiple degrees of freedom (DOF) end-effector is designed and its multi-DOF precision placement operation is analyzed. This new multi-DOF cantilever beam design consists of multiple piezoelectric rectangular rods glued together, which provides a way to accurately position the end in space. Detailed analysis of this advanced composite structure is carried out by the finite element method incorporating the piezoelectric actuations.

Piezoelectric materials are increasingly being applied to various fieldS of research and engineering applications. In recent years for example, much work has been concentrated on active vibration control of structures by incorporating piezoelectric as both sensorS and actuators. In the industry, piezoelectrics are widely being accepted as effective sensors, giving engineers more leverage to add new features to their products. In this paper, piezoelectric composite structure is studied for precision placement of a multiple degrees off freedom (DOF) end–effector per the converse piezoelectric effect. This new design of the multi–DOF cantilever beam, by attaching multiple piezoelectric rectangular rods together, will provide a way to accurately position the end of this beam structure. The computation of this advanced composite structure is done by the finite element method incorporating the piezoelectric effects.