Related motors and actuators

Chapter 9 Related motors and actuators The previous chapters have considering the motors and drives that are normally used within the range of applications that have been identified in

Chapter 9

Related motors and actuators

The previous chapters have considering the motors and drives that are normally used within the range of applications that have been identified in Chapter 1 How-ever, there are a number of specialist or unconventional motors that can and are being used in an increasing number of applications These motors may be selected for a wide verity of reasons, both technical and commercial This chapter considers

a number of theses motors and their associated controllers, therefore allowing the design engineer to have an overview of all available technologies In this chapter the following motors are considered:

• voice coil actuators

• limited-angle torque motors

• piezoelectric motors

• switched reluctance motors

• shape memory alloy, SMA

While these motors currently have specialist niches in servo drive applications, a range of exciting motors are currently being developed based a wide range of tech-nologies, including electrostatic and micro electromechanical (MEM)techtech-nologies, and these will no doubt find their way into more general use over time (Hameyer and Belmans, 1999) Currently this technology is still the research stage, but the appUcations currently being explored are significant and challenging, and for ex-ample include the manipulation of a single DNA molecule (Chiou and Lee, 2005)

9.1 Voice coils

Voice coils or solenoids are ideally suited for short linear (typically less than 50 mm) closed-loop servo applications and both operate on similar principles In a voice coil, the actual coil moves, while in a solenoid, the iron core moves Typical

235

236 9.1 VOICE COILS

Soft iron core for flux

return

Magnet Tubular coil

Output

Figure 9.1 The cross section of a voice coil; the dimensions of the air gap has

been exaggerated

positioning appHcations include direct drives on pick and place equipment, medical equipment, and mirror tilt and focusing actuators In addition voice coils can also

be used in appHcations where precise force control is required, due to the linear force versus current characteristics

A voice coil is wound in such a way that no commutation is required, hence a simple linear amplifier can be used to control the actuator's position The result is

a much simpler and more reliable system Voice coils have a number of significant advantages including small size, very low electrical and mechanical time constants, and low moving mass that allows allows for high accelerations, though this depends

on the load being moved

Voice coil actuators are direct drive, limited motion devices that utilise a per-manent magnet field and coil winding (conductor) to produce a force proportional

to the current applied to the coil These non-commutated electromagnet devices are used in Hnear (or rotary) motion applications requiring a linear force output, high acceleration, or high frequency actuation

The electromechanical conversion mechanism of a voice coil actuator is gov-erned by the Lorentz force principle; which states that if current-carrying conductor

is placed in a magnetic field, a force will result The magnitude of the force is

de-termined by the magnetic flux destiny, B, the current, z, hence for a winding of A^

turns, the resultant force is given by

In its simplest form, a linear voice coil actuator is a tubular coil of wire situated within a radially oriented magnetic field, as shown in Figure 9.1 The field is pro-duced by permanent magnets embedded on the inside of a ferromagnetic cylinder

CHAPTER 9, RELATED MOTORS AND ACTUATORS 237

The inner core of ferromagnetic material is aligned along the axial centreline of the

coil, and joined at one end to the permanent magnet assembly, is used to complete

the magnetic circuit The force generated axially upon the coil when current flows

through the coil will produce relative motion between the field assembly and the

coil, provided the force is large enough to overcome friction, inertia, and any other

forces from loads attached to the coil For a specific operating displacement of the

actuator, the axial lengths of the coil and the magnet assemblies can be chosen such

that the force vs displacement curve can be optimised, resulting in the reduction of

force at the mid-stroke force being limited to less than 5% of the maximum force

The sizing and selection of a voice coil actuator is no different from any other

Unear application, the process defined in Section 3.8.4 can be followed

9.2 Limited-angle torque motors

Limited-angle torque motors are a range of special-purpose motors that are capable

of giving controllable motion up to ±90° from their rest position While brushless

motors, as discussed in Chapter 6, have many benefits, they have the penalty of

being relatively expensive and complex, if only a limited range of motion is

re-quired The requirement for a limited range of movement can be found in many

applications, including the operation of air or hydraulic servo-valves and oscillating

mirrors In addition, their inherent reliability of operation makes a limited-angle

torque motors an ideal solution for applications where limited actuation is

criti-cal, for example in spacecraft latches, where the only previous solution was to use

pyrotechnics

The basic construction of a limited-angle torque motor is shown in Figure 9.2

While they are broadly similar to brushless d.c motors, the limited-angle torque

motor is a single-phase device, which eliminate the need for the commutation logic

and the three-phase power bridge that are found in multiphase machines The

torque motor's winding can be wound in conventional slots or as a toroid over

a slotless stator The rotor in a limited-angle torquer incorporates one or more

magnets The slot-wound limited-angle torque motor has a number of advantages

over toroidally wound motors; in particular they have better thermal dissipation

and a higher torque constant However, because of the presence of slots, the output

torque ripple and hysteresis losses are greater The torque ripple can be considered

to be zero with toroidally wound motors due to the non-varying reluctance path and

the large air gap In addition the slot-wound limited-angle torque motor exhibits a

higher motor constant Km, than the corresponding toroidally wound motor, due

to the larger number of conductors that are exposed to the magnetic field

Cogging is essentially zero in toroidally wound limited-angle torque motor,

a result of a non-varying reluctance path and relatively large air gap Toroidally

wound armatures, moreover, are typically moulded onto the stator, which protects

the windings from damage and holds them in place

In the selection of a limited-angle torque motor for an application, a number of

238 92 LIMITED-ANGLE TORQUE MOTORS

gtator

Stator

(a) Slotted armature (b) Toroid armature

Figure 9.2 Internal construction of limited angle torque motors

Torque Torque

+45^ -45°

Rotor position (a) Slotted armature

0°

Rotor position

(b) Toroid armature

+45

Figure 9.3 Torque-position characteristics for a limited angle torque motor

parameters shall be considered, including:

• Peak torque As in a conventional motor, this is the torque which is

devel-oped at the rated current

• Excursion angle This is the maximum angle that the rotor can move from

the peak-torque position, and it is normally expressed as a plus/ minus value

Figure 9.3 shows typical characteristics for a slot-wound and a toroidally

wound motor In the latter case, the constant-torque region should be noted

Limited-angle torque motors are currently available in ratings from 7 x lO""^

to 0.142 N m, with excursion angles between ±18° and ±90°

As limited-angle torque motor are single-phase motors, they are easily

con-trolled by single-phase bipolar PWM amplifiers which are identical to those used

with brushed d.c motors In certain applications, a linear amplifier could be used

to increase the bandwidth and to reduce the electrical noise The limited-angle

torque motor produces torque through a rotation angle determined by the number

of motor poles Current of one polarity produces clockwise torque, and vice versa

Manufacturers generally provide a theoretical torque versus shaft-position curve Typically, the characteristic curve for a slotted armature limited-angle torque motor

is represented by a cosine function; that is

CHAPTER 9 RELATED MOTORS AND ACTUATORS 239

Torque

Load

torque

—Usable displacement-Rotor position

Figure 9.4 The restriction in usable displacement of a limited-angle torque motor

as a function of load torque

where 6 is angle of rotation, A^ is number of poles, and Tp is the peak torque The

general torque characteristic for toroidally wound motors can be represented by a similar curve, but it may also have a flat top

The selection of a limited-angle torque motor for an application follows an identical route to that of any motor The process starts with the determination

of the application's constraints and of the performance which is required Once the torque, and the angle over which it is to be applied, has been determined, the suppliers data must be referred to As the torque-angle characteristic of limited-angle torque motor is sinusoidal, care must be taken to ensure that these devices can produce the required torque throughout the proposed actuation angle, as shown

in Figure 9.4

9.3 Piezoelectric motors

Many specialist applications require motors of extremely high resolution, for example, micropositioning stages, fibre-optic positioning, and medical catheter placement One motor that can meet these requirements is the piezoelectric mo-tor When compared to a conventional motors and its associated power train, the piezoelectric motor has a faster response times, far higher precision, inherent brake capability with no backlash, high power-to-weight ratio, and is of smaller size The operation of this motor is based on the use of piezoelectric materials where

a material is capable of being deformed by the application of a voltage A range

of materials such as quartz (Si02) or barium titanate (BaTiOa) exhibit the electric effect However in motors normally mass-produced polycrystalline piezo-electric ceramic is used To produce a suitable ceramic, a number of chemicals are processed, pressed to shape, fired, and polarised Polarisation is achieved using high electric fields (2500 V/mm) to align material domains along a primary axis In Figure 9.5(c), a voltage is applied to a piezoelectric crystal to produce a displace-ment If the material has a displacement constant of 5(X) pm V~^ the application

240 9.4 SWITCHED RELUCTANCE MOTORS

(a)

f f \ \ / , \ \

(b)

(c)

Figure 9.5 The characteristic of a piezoelectric material, (a) shows domains in

the the unpolarised material, which align when polarised, as shown in (b) The

application of a voltage causes axial displacement, d

of 200 V, will produces an axial displacement of 0.1 fim

Figure 9.6 shows the basic concepts of a piezoelectric motor Two piezoelec-tric crystals are preloaded against a flat wear surface, by way of the motor shoe,

to produce a normal contact force The friction is important in the design of the motor, since the friction force is used to translate the motion of the piezoelectric ceramic into the motor's output As a positive sinusoidal voltage waveform is ap-plied which increase its thickness, the axial motion imparts a frictional force along the wear strip When the drive voltage goes negative, the same crystal thickness contacts This action creates a separation between the motor shoe and the wear strip, allowing the motor to return to its original position without dragging the wear strip backward As the drive voltage swings positive again, the crystal stroke cycle repeats and the wear strip moves another incremental step to the left

9.4 Switched reluctance motors

While not originally designed for high-performance servo applications, the switched reluctance motor is making inroads into this area, due to the availability

of low-cost digital signal processing The switched reluctance motor is particularly suitable to a wide range of applications due to the robustness of the mechanical and electrical design

In a reluctance machine, the torque is produced by the moving component mov-ing to a position such that the inductance of the excited windmov-ing is maximised The moving component is typically the machine's rotor - which can be either internal

or external depending on the design - or a linear component in the case of a linear

CHAPTER 9 RELATED MOTORS AND ACTUATORS 241

Preload Spings

n

(a) The motor at rest (Vs — 0): the motor head is

preloaded against the wear surface

E S ^

Preload Spings

D

(b) On excitation of the piezoelectric actuator (V^ > 0), the head moves against the wear surface, moving the wear surface

Gap

^ ^

Preload Spings

(c) Excitation of the piezoelectric material (Vs < 0), releases the actuator for the wear surface, allowing the actuator to return to its initial position

Figure 9.6 The operation of a piezoelectric motor

242 9.4 SWITCHED RELUCTANCE MOTORS

indings

Stator

Figure 9.7 The cross section of a switched reluctance motor

reluctance motor

The switched reluctance motor is topologically and electromagnetically simi-lar in design to the variable-reluctance stepper motor discussed in Section 8.1.2 The key differences lie in the details of the engineering design, the approach to control, and hence its performance characteristics The switched reluctance motor

is operated under closed loop control, with a shaft mounted encoder being used

to synchronise the phase currents with rotor position In comparison the variable-reluctance stepper motor is operated open loop

The operating principles of the switch reluctance machine can be considered by examination of Figure 9.7 The number of cycles of torque production per motor revolutions is given by

where m is the number of phases, and A^^ the number of phases A more detailed

analysis of the motor can be found in Miller (2001) The voltage equation for

a single phase can be calculated in a similar fashion to that used for a brushless motor

V ^ Ri-^

~dt Ri + UJr

where v is the terminal voltage, i is the phase current, ip is the flux-linkage in volt-seconds, R is the phase voltage, L is the inductance of the phase winding, 9

CHAPTER 9 RELATED MOTORS AND ACTUATORS 243

is the rotor position and Um is the rotor's angular velocity This equation can be

expanded to give

v = Ri + iUm~^ =Ri + L—+ uJmi-jK (9-5)

du dt du

In a similar fashion to a d.c brushed motor it is useful to consider the terminal

voltage V as the sum of three components: the resistive voltage drop, the voltage

drop due to the inductance and rate of change of current, and the back e.m.f term,

e

e = u:J^ (9.6)

From equation 9.5 it is possible to calculate the instantaneous electrical power, vi,

as,

^ 9 ^ di 9 dL ,_ _^

vi = Ri^-\-Li—+ i^rrT-TT: (9.7)

di dB

which allows the rate of change in magnetic energy to be calculated:

The electromagnetic torque generated by the motor can therefore be determined

from the instantaneous electrical power minus the resistive voltages drops due and

the rate of change of magnetic stored energy:

Te = ^^-^^ (9.9)

The rate of change of inductance as a function of rotor position is one of the design

parameters of the switched reluctance machine From equation 9.9 it is clear that

the torque does not depend on the direction of current flow, however the voltage

must be reversed to reduce the flux-linkage to zero A suitable power circuit for

a single winding is shown in Figure 9.8 It is immediately clear that this circuit

is far more robust that the conventional PWM bridge shown in Figure 6.5(a), as a

Une-to-Une short circuit is not possible

The circuit shown in Figure 9.8 is capable of operating the motor as either a

motor or a generator, as vi can either be positive or negative, and the power flow

is determined by the switching pattern of the power bridge relative to the rotor's

position A block diagram of a suitable controller for a basic switched reluctance

motor is shown in Figure 9.9 It is recognised that although this type of drive

is simple, and gives adequate performance for speed control, it is incapable of

providing instantaneous torque control as required by a servo or similar application

244 9.4 SWITCHED RELUCTANCE MOTORS

1^

q"

QlpH

H —

: SRM ^

- Phase

H

r^

H

Q2

—

Figure 9.8 A single phaseleg as used in a switched reluctance motor The current

direction is determined by Ql and Q2, with the respective flywheel diodes

Velocity

Controller

1

,

PWM Controller

< i

- 1 /

Commutation Control

Power Bridge

Cur

fnPTJ

1 '^.nM V- /F^ ^

1 onivi r~ \ r

rent

hark

Position feedback

Speed feedback

Figure 9.9 A typical controller for a switched reluctance machine operating under

velocity control