The Bug

The Bug is our most versatile actuator. The motor is mounted beside the thrust tube and drives the lead screw through a Kevlar reinforced cog belt. This allows for reduction ratios from 1:1 to 5:1 with essentially zero backlash. A wide selection of brush, brushless or stepper motors are available as well as various control schemes.

The simplest control scheme is just a toggle switch. This allows for manual extension and retraction of the actuator.

The UM1 and UM2 controllers can move a Bug actuator to pre-determined limit positions and, with the addition of a linear feedback potentiometer, display the position as a percent of stroke. The UM2 controller also has a built in speed control.

For more sophisticated position control, a closed-loop servo system can be used. Ultra Motion can supply an analog servo amplifier for use with the linear position feedback element, or a digital PID control system, which uses an optical encoder for position feedback.