Performance comparisons of alternative permanent‐magnet motor designs for personal mobility‐assistive device applications

Abstract

Demands of appropriate personal mobility‐assistive devices for those needed persons have been increased considerably in recent years, with their specific operational requirements, developments of adequate motors to different device parts are the main concerns. For applications onto those knee joint parts of the exoskeleton system, three types of permanent‐magnet (PM) motors, namely the surface‐mounted PM motor, the Vernier motor, and the flux‐switching motor were designed. Based on the operational and physical constraints of the particular exoskeleton parts, optimisations of these PM motors were provided along with their thorough performance comparisons. From emulated finite‐element analyses along with hardware experimental validations, by following the standard test settings, selection guidance for the suitable motor structures at different operational objectives will thus be supplied.