Figure 2 (Left) The piezoelectric bending actuators are attached to a subject's hands and
feet using elastic bandage wrap. (Right) Six piezoelectric bending actuators are being
attached to a subject's hands, feet, and face.
Performance Characteristics
The displacement of the larger piezoelectric bending actuators was measured by
placing an actuator under an Olympus SZHlO research stereo microscope
(www.olympusamerica.com). The microscope was focused on a thin piece of wire glued
to the tip of the actuator since the actuator itself is wider than the focal length of the
microscope, and a transparent scale bar 2 mm in length with 10μm intervals was placed
under the wire. The wire added a negligible amount of length. A Nikon Coolpix 5000
digital camera (www.nikonusa.com) was mounted on the microscope. First an image of
the scale bar was taken, and then photographs were captured of the actuator being