Abstract:
Modular and bioinspired architectures offer considerable promise for new motor designs. In some cases they may even offer unexpected benefits. Here, we first describe a bioinspired architecture for modular linear permanent magnet synchronous motors. We then focus on an additional use for the components of such a design, by constructing a distributed absolute position sensor within such a modular motor. By using a magnetic field sensor associated with each coil, and arranging the sensor outputs so that they are exponentially weighted or scaled from one end of the motor to the other, a unique absolute position signal can be obtained from a set of identical motor units.