Optimum design of electrical motors for multilink manipulators and automated manufacturing systems

The problem of finding the optimum design of electric motors used as actuators in robotic manipulators and in manufacturing machines is addressed. The optimization may provide a minimum time of operation and/or minimum losses of energy for the actuator. The development of design technologies is reviewed, yielding a recommendation for a hierarchical procedure for motor design using small computers. Information from the catalogues of 1800 motors was organized into a computer database, MOTOR-USA. Analysis of the database shows that the DC PM motor has the best performance characteristics among all types of motors. The design of a generalized electric motor is formulated using a doubly excited magnetic field system. The generalized examples of transformer and synchronous motor designs lead to an important result: there exists an optimum machine configuration which remains unchanged when the power of the motor is changed over a broad range.