A trade between types of electric motors for robotics applications in space

Start year: 2024

Summary: This research will take the form of a trade study (direct comparison) looking at different kinds of electric actuators for in-space robotics and determining their suitability based on key metrics, including: torque density, volumetric density, efficiency, scalability of design, cost to manufacture, resistance to the thermal environment, vacuum compatibility, redundancy, failure modes, and other relevant factors. Industry partners involved in this research will collaborate to define and provide information on their use cases such that a breadth of space applications and specification can be explored. This is to account for variability in use case to define in which applications different technology has advantages over others. Types of motors of interest to be explored include, variable-reluctance, hybrid reluctance, radial-flux BLDC, PCB-stator aircore axial-flux BLDC, traditional axial-flux BLDCs, and more.

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.