Design and Performance Assessments of a Surface-mounted Permanent-magnet Vernier Motor for Exoskeleton System Application.

摘要

By appropriately adjusting the induced back electromagnetic forces on the stator windings, similar to those of a magnetic-geared motor, extra torque components can be generated from a surface-mounted permanent-magnet Vernier motor (VM) [1]. Since the joint parts of an exoskeleton system are generally equipped with appropriate motor-gear sets to provide the desired driven torques, the costs of these incorporated mechanical components can greatly be reduced with smaller gears ratios. With its relatively larger torque output, as long as the output speeds of the motorgear set can still meet operational specifications, the VM will thus offer a competitive alternative for such applications. Following the same physical and operational constraints, an optimized VM (Opt. VM) capable of generating twice the torque output of an existing commercial VM (Ref. VM) that is commonly adopted on the exoskeleton system will thus be expected. By setting adequate design objectives and adopting the Taguchi's methodology, from the results calculated by thorough finite element analyses (FEA), the designed Opt. VM will be constructed and the related experimental measurements will be supplied to validate the design adequacies.