Lecture 8: Motors and Actuators

Working At The Boundary Between

EE/CSE/EPE, Mechanical and
Materials Engineering

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 Magnetism

• One of the first

compasses, a fish
shaped iron leaf
was mentioned in
the Wu Ching
Tsung Yao written
in 1040
Trinity College, Dublin

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 Animal Magnetism

• A frog suspended in an intense magnetic field – all

of us are paramagnetic
• Much money is wasted on magnetic therapy

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 Electromagnetic Revolution

  B
 D    E 
t

   D
 B  0  H J 
t
• These four equations epitomize the
electromagnetic revolution. Richard Feynman
claimed that "ten thousand years from now, there
can be little doubt that the most significant event
of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's
discovery of the laws of electrodynamics"
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 Magnetic Attraction

• It is possible to produce motion using magnetic

attraction and/or repulsion
• Either permanent magnets or electromagnets or
both can be used
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 2 Minute Quiz
Name_____________ Sec___

• True or false, unlike magnetic poles attract and like

magnetic poles repel one another.
• Name one mechatronic device that you own or use on a
regular basis
• Which engineering majors are some interest to you?
Electrical, Computer & Systems, Electric Power,
Nuclear, Mechanical, Aeronautical, Biomedical, Civil,
Industrial & Management, Materials, Chemical,
Environmental, Engineering Physics

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 Magnetic Attraction and Repulsion

• One of the many facts we all recall from our

earliest science education
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 DC Motors

• The stator is the stationary outside part of a motor.

The rotor is the inner part which rotates. In the
motor animations, red represents a magnet or
winding with a north polarization, while green
represents a magnet or winding with a south
polariztion. Opposite, red and green, polarities
attract.
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 DC Motors

• Just as the rotor reaches alignment, the brushes

move across the commutator contacts and energize
the next winding. In the animation the commutator
contacts are brown and the brushes are dark grey.
A yellow spark shows when the brushes switch to
the next winding.

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 DC Motor Applications

• Automobiles
 Windshield Wipers
 Door locks
 Window lifts
 Antenna retractor •Cordless hand drill
 Seat adjust •Electric lawnmower
 Mirror adjust •Fans
 Anti-lock Braking System •Toys
•Electric toothbrush
•Servo Motor
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 Beakman’s Motor

• A simple DC motor made with a battery, two

paperclips, a rubber band and about 1 meter of
enameled wire.
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 Brushless DC Motors

• A brushless dc motor has a rotor with permanent

magnets and a stator with windings. It is
essentially a dc motor turned inside out. The
control electronics replace the function of the
commutator and energize the proper winding.

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 Brushless DC Motor Applictions
• Medical: centrifuges, orthoscopic surgical
tools, respirators, dental surgical tools, and
organ transport pump systems
• Model airplanes, cars, boats, helicopters
• Microscopes
• Tape drives and winders
• Artificial heart

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 Full Stepper Motor

• This animation demonstrates the principle for a stepper motor using full step
commutation. The rotor of a permanent magnet stepper motor consists of
permanent magnets and the stator has two pairs of windings. Just as the rotor
aligns with one of the stator poles, the second phase is energized. The two
phases alternate on and off and also reverse polarity. There are four steps. One
phase lags the other phase by one step. This is equivalent to one forth of an
electrical cycle or 90°.

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 Half Stepper Motor

• This animation shows the stepping pattern for a half-step stepper motor. The
commutation sequence for a half-step stepper motor has eight steps instead of
four. The main difference is that the second phase is turned on before the first
phase is turned off. Thus, sometimes both phases are energized at the same time.
During the half-steps the rotor is held in between the two full-step positions. A
half-step motor has twice the resolution of a full step motor. It is very popular
for this reason.

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 Stepper Motors

• This stepper motor is very simplified. The rotor of a real stepper motor usually
has many poles. The animation has only ten poles, however a real stepper motor
might have a hundred. These are formed using a single magnet mounted inline
with the rotor axis and two pole pieces with many teeth. The teeth are staggered
to produce many poles. The stator poles of a real stepper motor also has many
teeth. The teeth are arranged so that the two phases are still 90° out of phase.
This stepper motor uses permanent magnets. Some stepper motors do not have
magnets and instead use the basic principles of a switched reluctance motor. The
stator is similar but the rotor is composed of a iron laminates.

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 More on Stepper Motors

• Note how the phases are driven so that the

rotor takes half steps
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 More on Stepper Motors

• Animation shows how coils are energized

for full steps
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 More on Stepper Motors

• Full step sequence • Half step

showing how binary sequence of
numbers can control the binary control
motor numbers
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 Stepper Motor Applications

• Film Drive • I. V. Pump

• Optical Scanner • Blood Analyzer
• Printers • FAX Machines
• ATM Machines • Thermostats
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 Switched Reluctance Motor

• A switched reluctance or variable reluctance motor does not contain any

permanent magnets. The stator is similar to a brushless dc motor. However, the
rotor consists only of iron laminates. The iron rotor is attracted to the energized
stator pole. The polarity of the stator pole does not matter. Torque is produced
as a result of the attraction between the electromagnet and the iron rotor in the
same way a magnet is attracted to a refrigerator door. An electrically quiet
motor since it has no brushes.

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 Switched Reluctance Motor Applications

• Motor scooters and other electric and hybrid

vehicles
• Industrial fans, blowers, pumps, mixers,
centrifuges, machine tools
• Domestic appliances
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 Brushless AC Motor

• A brushless ac motor is driven with ac sine wave voltages. The

permanent magnet rotor rotates synchronous to the rotating
magnetic field. The rotating magnetic field is illustrated using a
red and green gradient. An actual simulation of the magnetic field
would show a far more complex magnetic field.

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 AC Induction Motor

• The stator windings of an ac induction motor are distributed around the stator
to produce a roughly sinusoidal distribution. When three phase ac voltages are
applied to the stator windings, a rotating magnetic field is produced. The rotor
of an induction motor also consists of windings or more often a copper
squirrel cage imbedded within iron laminates. Only the iron laminates are
shown. An electric current is induced in the rotor bars which also produce a
magnetic field.

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 AC Induction Motor

• The rotating magnetic field of the stator drags the rotor around. The rotor does
not quite keep up with the the rotating magnetic field of the stator. It falls
behind or slips as the field rotates. In this animation, for every time the
magnetic field rotates, the rotor only makes three fourths of a turn. If you
follow one of the bright green or red rotor teeth with the mouse, you will
notice it change color as it falls behind the rotating field. The slip has been
greatly exaggerated to enable visualization of this concept. A real induction
motor only slips a few percent.

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 Huge List of Applications from Hurst
• Aircraft Window Polarizing Drives • Warning Light Flashers
• Antenna Positioning and Tuning Devices • Railroad Signal Equipment
• Audio/Video Recording Instruments • Remote Focusing Microscopes
• Automated Inspection Equipment • Resonator Drives for Vibraphones
• Automated Photo Developing Equipment • ……..
• Automated Photo Slide Trimming & • Silicone Wafer Production Equipment
Mounting Equipment • Solar Collector Devices
• Automatic Carton Marking & Dating • Sonar Range Recorders and Simulators
Machines • Steel Mill Process Scanners
• Automatic Dying and Textile Coloring • Tape Cleaning Equipment
Equipment
• Tape Input for Automatic Typewriters
• Automatic Food Processing Equipment
• Telescope Drives
• Automatic I.V. Dispensing Equipment
• Ultrasonic Commercial Fish Detectors
• Automatic Radio Station Identification
Equipment • Ultrasonic Medical Diagnostic Equipment
• Automotive • Voltage Regulators
• Automotive Engine Pollution Analyzers • Water and Sewage Treatment Controls
• Baseball Pitching Machine • Weather Data Collection Machines
• Blood Agitators • Welding Machines
• Blood Cell Analyzer • X-Ray Equipment
• …….. • XY Plotters

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 Stepper Motor from Mechatronics

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 Mechatronics Stepper Motor Continued

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 Mechatronics

• Mechatronics is at the intersection between

several disciplinary areas, as represented by
these Venn diagrams
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 What Is Mechatronics?
• Mechatronics is the synergistic integration
of mechanical engineering, electronics,
controls, and computers; all integrated
through the design process.
• EXAMPLES:
• robots
• anti-lock brakes
• photocopiers
• consumer products (e.g., clothes dryers)
• disk drives
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 MEMS
• Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is the
integration of mechanical elements, sensors, actuators,
and electronics on a common silicon substrate through
the utilization of microfabrication technology. While
the electronics are fabricated using integrated circuit
(IC) process sequences (e.g., CMOS, Bipolar, or
BICMOS processes), the micromechanical components
are fabricated using compatible "micromachining"
processes that selectively etch away parts of the silicon
wafer or add new structural layers to form the
mechanical and electromechanical devices.

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 MEMS Stepper Motor

• This motor is very much like the other

stepper motors mentioned above, except
that it is 2D and very small

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 MEMS

• The potential complexity of the MEMS device

increases exponentially with the number of unique
process features and individual structural layers.

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 MEMS: Steam Engine

• Water inside of three compression cylinders is heated by

electric current and vaporizes, pushing the piston out. Capillary
forces then retract the piston once current is removed.

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 MEMS

• Rotary motor
• Steam Engine (single piston)

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 MEMS Gear Trains

• Six gear planar train at various speeds

• Close up of six gear train

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 Power MEMS

• 80 Watt gas microturbine designed and

built at MIT for MEMS power applications

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 Integrated MEMS
• This six-degrees-of-
freedom micro-inertial
measurement system
combines
microelectronic circuitry
[top right] with a couple
of
• micromechanical
elements: an
accelerometer [center
right] and gyroscope
[bottom right].

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 Integrated MEMS
• Types of micromechanical
devices that might be used in
integrated microsystems of
the future [shown clockwise
from right] include this gear,
pop-up mirror, mirror
assembly, and hinge. The
gear is part of an assembly
that has demonstrated torque
ratios of up to 3 million to 1.
The silicon mirror is
fabricated flat on the silicon
wafer, then "popped up" to its
raised position using the gear
assembly.

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 Integrated MEMS
• Sample collection regions for
concentration, microseparation
channels, sensor arrays for
detection, and an exit region are
illustrated in schematic of the
chemical analysis section of a
micro-chemlab. Chemicals are
detected measuring the response
of surface acoustic-wave devices
to a chemical's presence. The
photograph is of an array of
micromachined 3-µm silicon
posts in a microchannel being
studied as a tool for enhancing
electrokinetically driven liquid
separations.

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 MEMS Displays

• Iridigm Display -- The iMoD element uses interference

to create color in the same way that structural color
works in nature. Microscopic structures on butterfly
wings and peacock feathers cause light to interfere with
itself, creating the shimmering iridescent colors that we
see in these creatures. (Used in PDAs)
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 MEMS Displays

• The iMoD element is a simple MEMS device that is composed of two

conductive plates. One is a thin film stack on a glass substrate, the other is a
metallic membrane suspended over it. There is a gap between the two that is
filled with air. The iMoD element has two stable states. When no voltage is
applied, the plates are separated, and light hitting the substrate is reflected as
shown above. When a small voltage is applied, the plates are pulled together
by electrostatic attraction and the light is absorbed, turning the element black.

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 MEMS Displays

• iMoD elements are minuscule, typically 25-60 microns on a side (400-

1,000 dots per inch). Therefore, many iMoD elements are ganged and
driven together as a pixel, or sub-pixel in a color display. The color of
the iMoD element is determined by the size of the gap between the
plates. As shown, the blue iMoD has the smallest gap and the red has
the largest. To create a flat panel display, a large array of iMoD
elements are fabricated in the desired format (i.e. 5" full color VGA)
and packaged. Finally, driver chips are attached at the edge to
complete the display.
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 References
• Motor Operation Principles from Freescale
/Motorola by Ken Berringer
• Basic Stepper Motor Concepts
• MEMS Clearinghouse
• Mechatronics at Rensselaer
• Mechatronics.org
• Beakman’s Motor:
Electronic Instrumentation and
Fields and Waves I
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 Primary Course Goal for IEE
• Assure that each EE and CSE student has a
minimum of 20 hours of practical electronics and
instrumentation experience before they begin
taking disciplinary courses.
 For students with no experience – 20 hours successfully
completing labs
 For students with some experience – 20 hours
completing labs, expanding their knowledge base and
helping those with less experience
 For students outside of EE and CSE – provide a working
knowledge of electronics

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 Where Will You See This Material Again?
• Mechatronics: MANE-4490 Mechatronics,
MANE-4250 Mechatronic Systems Design,
MANE 6960 Sensors & Actuators in
Mechatronics
• Motor Drives: ECSE/EPOW-4080 Semiconductor
Power Electronics and EPOW-4090 Power
Electronics Lab
• Motor Control: ENGR-2350 Introduction to
Embedded Control
• Concentration in Power Electronics: EPOW-4080
and MANE-4490
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