Design and Analysis of a Novel Two-Degree-of-Freedom Voice Coil Motor

Two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) actuators capable of producing linear/swing motion are significant for end-effectors in multidimensional complex motion platforms. This paper proposes a novel 2-DOF voice coil motor (VCM) featuring simple structure, small size, and great force properties. The structure of this novel VCM and the distribution of magnetic field are first described, the modeling of linear-thrust and swing-torque is accomplished, force properties of this 2-DOF VCM and stress analyses of the mover brackets are conducted by finite element method (FEM). Then, a prototype of this 2-DOF VCM was manufactured and tested to validate its theoretical features. In order to indicate the improvements of this proposed VCM, the force features of this motor are contrasted with the ones of a linear-swing VCM we designed previously; the simulation and experimental results of the two VCM are compared. Conclusion is drawn as that the proposed VCM has lower ripple ratios of linear-thrust and swing-torque, meanwhile, higher average values of linear-thrust and swing-torque are achieved. This paper provides a theoretical reference and experimental data of this novel 2-DOF VCM for multidimensional complex motion systems.