Control of a PVDF-based Microactuator

In this work, an optimized PID control system based on the beetle antennae search (BAS) algorithm is proposed to be used to control the displacement of a piezoelectric bending microactuator. The microactuator is made up of a three layer composite beam with two layers of PVDF providing actuation and sensing while the third layer acts as a passive substrate. The system is controlled by a PID controller with optimized gains in simulation to minimize the mean squared error between the desired displacement and the measured displacement by the sensing layer of the microactuator. The theoretical model of the system, the working principle of the control algorithm, as well as simulation and experimental validation results are presented. The BAS optimized PID controller outperforms the standard Ziegler-Nichols PID tuning method in a simulated model of the microactuator and control system.