Design and simulation of 2DOF coil based asynchronous actuator

Abstract

Spherical asynchronous motors (or actuators) have been one of the more popular subjects recently. The rotor body with a spherical shape is able to rotate around any axis within the stator; furthermore, the spherical actuators are expected to be well-suited to micro robotic applications due to their compact structures and fast response times. In the present study, a model of a two-degree-of-freedom spherical induction motor consisting of several (2 rotors 3 stators) multi-winding coils has been proposed. The parameters to be used in the motor model, basically inductances and mutual inductances, have been determined by analytical solutions of Maxwell's equations. These inductance values have been compared with finite element results obtained by a commercial package and good agreement has been observed. Nonlinear equations of motion of the two coils (in the rotor) have been developed and simulations were carried out by applying 0-24 Volts to the five stator windings. The motor model was shown to produce a torque of 0.028 Nm at 150 rpm.