Ieuan Matthew Carney

Traditionally, motors on board satellites make use of permanent magnets and induced magnetic fields. This can cause issues with the sensitive magnetic field sensing and actuation equipment on board. Therefore, there is a need to either move the critical equipment far away from the motor, or use other, more expensive, methods to sense and control satellite attitude. Alternatively, a low magnitude magnetic field solution could be used. This project aims to research a method utilising piezoelectric actuators in the form of a walking type motor to actuate a bistable composite tape spring. This walking motor will be characterised for deploying various materials and geometries, as well as tested under different operating conditions such as gaits and shaped driving waveforms. This will give an insight into how the performance of the motor can be improved, and what specific variables affect this outcome ultimately helping understand the feasibility of this class of motor on board a spacecraft.