Bifurcation Analysis of a Microactuator Using a New Toolbox for Continuation of Hybrid System Trajectories

This paper presents the application of a newly developed computational toolbox, TC-HAT(TCˆ), for bifurcation analysis of systems in which continuous-in-time dynamics are interrupted by discrete-in-time events, here referred to as hybrid dynamical systems. In particular, new results pertaining to the dynamic behavior of a sample hybrid dynamical system, an impact microactuator, are obtained using this software program. Here, periodic trajectories of the actuator with single or multiple impacts per period and associated saddle-node, period-doubling, and grazing bifurcation curves are documented. The analysis confirms previous analytical results regarding the presence of co-dimension-two grazing bifurcation points from which saddle-node and period-doubling bifurcation curves emanate.