Distributed position sensing in bioinspired modular synchronous machines

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.