Stiffness Tuning Using a Low-Cost Semiactive Nonlinear Technique

This paper presents a semiactive method for stiffness control of electromechanical systems. The proposed method consists of intermittently connecting a piezoelectric element on an oscillating electrical network. It is demonstrated that such a nonlinear treatment allows an effective control of the stiffness, while requiring less power than the classical methods. Experimental measurements carried out show that such a technique allows controlling the stiffness in a wide range of value, which validates the theoretical predictions.