Experimental Verification and Analysis of Six-Degree-of-Freedom Electromagnetic Actuator With Short-Stroke

Multiple-degree-of-freedom (DOF) positioning mechanisms and active damping devices are required six-DOF (6DOF) motion generation with 3DOF linear and 3DOF rotational motion. The conventional mechanisms consist of many linear and rotary actuators. This simple combination mechanisms make the structure more complex and increase in size. Then, a multi-DOF actuator that can be driven in 6DOF is expected to be realized. However, it is difficult due to the complexity of 6DOF support mechanism. To solve this problem, we propose a short-stroke 6DOF electromagnetic actuator by integrating a 6DOF elastic support mechanism using coil springs and an electromagnetic force generation mechanism. The proposed actuator that can generate 6DOF motion by only one actuator. This article describes a design and operating principle of the proposed actuator. The thrust and torque characteristics are investigated through a three-dimensional finite element method and experiments. It is clarified that the proposed actuator can generate torque and thrust. The dynamics is calculated using a dynamic model and are verified by experiments. The simulated and experimental results are compared, and the validity of the derived model is confirmed. The proposed 6ODF actuator has a simple structure, it is expected to contribute to the downsizing and simplification of multi-DOF mechanisms.