Spike AA1: Where Mechanical Simplicity Meets Amplified Motion

Before Spike AA2 and before our crawlers, there was Spike AA1. The first synthetic actuator we built that turned microscopic piezo motion into meaningful displacement.

It’s compact. It’s simple. And it taught us a lot about doing more with less.

The Problem: Micro-Motion That’s Too Micro

Piezoelectric stacks are brilliant. They respond instantly, require no magnets or gears, and last forever. But they only expand by 0.1% to 0.2% of their length. That’s not even a millimeter. Not enough for most real-world use.

We needed a way to take that tiny, beautiful motion and make it useful.

The Solution: Spike AA1: A Lever, Not a Motor

Spike AA1 is an amplified linear actuator. It takes a tiny vertical expansion from a piezo stack and magnifies it by 10× using just elastic deformation.

No complex joints. No motors. No sliders. Just two flat plates, a piezo core, and a smart layout.

Here’s how it works:

• A central piezo stack expands slightly when voltage is applied

• That expansion pushes against flexible inner plates

• The frame bends outward like a spring

• The actuator elongates by up to 1% of its height

  
  

It’s mechanical amplification in its purest form.

Other Amplified Actuators

We were not the first to invent an amplified actuator. But what is the difference? The difference is compactness. Our AA1 is more compact.

What It Can Do

Spike AA1 is great for:

• Systems that need a fast response over brute force

• Applications that need clean, silent, solid-state motion

• Places where traditional actuators can’t fit: haptics, lab tools, surgical devices

  
  

It can even replace standard piezo stacks in some actuator assemblies, especially where speed, agility, and space matter more than force.

We did find one limitation: Because of its asymmetric force path, AA1 can show slight torsional distortion under heavy load. But this led directly to the design of AA2, which solved that with a symmetrical frame.

Built to Be Shared

Spike AA1 is still incredibly useful, especially when size and part count matter. And like most of our actuators, it’s open source, under the CERN OHL v2 license.

If you’re building robotics, automation, or compact embedded systems and want a simple, solid-state motion unit, this is your starting point.