Objectives and Activity

　In modern societies, motors are applied in various engineering products. Almost all motors that are used rotate around only one axis. Multiple motors are necessary to develop mechanisms that realize the movement of multi-degree freedoms. A combination of multiple motors will increase the size of a mechanism and need a complex control system. On the other hand, spherical motors that can rotate around various rotation axes enable a small mechanism to move in multi-degree freedom and simplification of movement control systems.
   This study develops spherical motors driven by electro-magnetic forces and focuses on mechanisms of small size and high rotation torque generation, a technique of rotation control what we call torque map rotation control, and measurement systems of rotor posture for feedback rotation control.

Future plans

　Future works include the development of a real-time processing system to control the currents for electromagnets that are arranged in the stator to generate rotation torque and the development of a rotor posture measurement system using Hall sensors. Applications of spherical motors to stirrers and control systems of space satellites are also investigated. In addition, a spherical reducer to transfer the rotation torque generated by a spherical motor is studied.