Design and Analysis of a Novel Spherical Motor Based on the Principle of Reluctance

In this paper, a novel three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) spherical motor based on the principle of minimum magnetic reluctance is proposed. The structure of the spherical motor and the basic principles of the rotating and tilting motions are explained in detail firstly. Then the finite element method (FEM) is used to perform finite element analysis on the motor when the motor rotates and tilts, the magnetic field and the static torque characteristics of the spherical motor are obtained. The results show that there is always a holding torque in the rotating and tilting movements, indicating the feasibility of the proposed spherical motor.