Electromagnetic motor design that maximizes cogging torque and enables energy-efficient motion for robotics applications by allowing the motor to rotate slowly and deliberately across acute angles.

Motors were designed and optimized for industrial processes that require continuous smooth rotation, which typically requires minimization of cogging torque. These motors operate efficiently at high speeds, but must be geared down to achieve velocities and torques typically needed for robotics. Gearing these robots down leads to inefficient motors with no inherent compliance, creating robots with poor safety features. Current solutions to the safety concerns, however, require auxiliary components resulting in large, ineffective, and complex systems.

University of Utah researchers are developing a new type of robot actuator, comprising an electromagnetic machine combined with a local controller implementing bioinspired motion primitives. The cogging-torque actuator will accept high-level commands and adjust its own behavior according to its local experience through a combination of controlled passive dynamics and high-bandwidth feedback control. This design will facilitate more robust operation by enabling distributed control, inherent sensing capability, controllable compliance, and leveraging the nonlinear dynamics of the actuator.

Prototype

• Improves operation in highly dynamic environments.
• Increases energy efficiency.
• Facilitates passive holding torque.
• Enables controllable compliance.
• Enables distributed control.

Huy Tran
(801) 581-7792
huy.tran@utah.edu