Abstract
This paper presents a spherical motor driven by electro-magnets that can rotate omnidirectionally with some degrees of rotation angle error independent of rotation direction. The spherical motor is composed of a spherical rotor, a semi-spherical stator, a control PC, a control circuit, and a DC power supply. The rotor has 92 neodymium magnets. On the other hand, 84 electro-magnets are arranged on the stator. Each electro-magnet can be excited to north or south magnetic pole. The control PC calculates the posture of the rotor after a small time interval and generates the pattern of excitation of electro-magnets in order to rotate the rotor to its calculated posture. The results of the performance of the developed spherical motor show that the maximum torque is 0.24 (N·m), the maximum rotation speed is 2.5 (rad/s), and the average error of rotation angle is several degrees.
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Seiji Ikeshita received his B.S. in Systems Engineering from Okayama University, Japan, in 2008. He is currently a Master’s student at the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology at Okayama University.
Akio Gofuku received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1981 and 1983 and his PhD from Kyoto University in 1990. He is currently a professor at the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology at Okayama University. His research interests include human-machine interfaces, mechatronics, and medical support systems.
Tetsushi Kamegawa received his B.S. and M.S. in Mechano-Aerospace Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, in 1999 and 2001 and his PhD from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2004. He is currently a lecturer at the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology at Okayama University, Japan. His research interests include snake-like robots and rescue robot systems.
Takakazu Nagai received his B.S. in Systems Engineering from Okayama University in 2006. He received his M.S. in Mechanical Systems Engineering from Okayama University in 2008. He is currently an engineer at Glory LTD, Hyogo, Japan.
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Ikeshita, S., Gofuku, A., Kamegawa, T. et al. Development of a spherical motor driven by electro-magnets. J Mech Sci Technol 24, 43–46 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-009-1163-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-009-1163-0