Spherical motors have an advantageous feature that they can rotate around multiple axes. From the advantage, spherical motors are expected to be applied to driving mechanisms of holonomic mobile robots, joints of robots, and so on. This study develops a spherical motor called 14-12 spherical stepping motor that can rotate around 6 axes. This paper describes the structure of the motor, rotation principle by five-phase ACs (Alternative Currents), a five-phase AC power supply, and rotation experiments to confirm the applicability of the motor.

Objective During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many social activities have moved online using applications for digital devices (e.g. computers, smartphones). We investigated the needs of telemedicine and trends in medical status and social care situations of Japanese patients with neurological disorders in order to estimate their affinity for an online telemedicine application. Methods We designed an original questionnaire for the present study that asked participants what problems they had with hospital visits, how the COVID-19 pandemic had affected their lives, and whether or not they would like to receive telemedicine. Patients The present study included volunteer caregivers, participants with Parkinson's disease (PD), epilepsy, stroke, dementia, immune-mediated neurological disease (IMMD), spinocerebellar degeneration (SCD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), headache, myopathy, and other neurological diseases from Okayama University Hospital. Results A total of 29.6% of patients wanted to use telemedicine. Patients with headaches (60.0%) and epilepsy (38.1%) were more likely to want to use telemedicine than patients with PD (17.8%) or stroke (19.0%). Almost 90% of patients had access to a digital device, and there was no association between favoring telemedicine, ownership of a digital device, hospital visiting time, or waiting time at the hospital, although age was associated with motivation to telemedicine use (52.6 vs. 62.2 years old, p <0.001*). ConclusionWe can contribute to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and the medical economy by promoting telemedicine, especially for young patients with headaches or epilepsy.

When a robot system is developed by only norrnal rnotors that rotate around axis ， the necessary numbcr of motors is the same as that ofjoints resulting in large and complicated system ． On the other hand， spherical motors will realize a small and simple mechanism

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Spherical motors have been studied widely because they have several advantageous features and are applicable to driving mechanisms of holonomic mobile robots, joints of robots, and so on. This study develops a 14-12 spherical motor and evaluates cogging torque and rotation torque for the rotation around one of two kinds of rotation axes. This paper describes the structure of the developed 14-12 spherical motor, working principle of rotation by five-phase alternative current (AC), and some evaluation results of rotation performance. The evaluation results of rotation torque exhibit the applicability of the 14-12 spherical motor.