Control of an unconventional rotary-linear brushless machine

Electrical drives employing motors able to directly manage multiple degrees of freedom may result of relevant interest in several application fields, e.g. robotics and tooling machines. This paper recalls first the features of a rotary-linear brushless machine recently introduced, highlighting the ideal possibility to achieve a decoupled force/torque regulation through a suitable supply strategy. A control system for such machine is then presented, using adaptive yet relatively simple regulators. A complete drive structure is finally analysed by simulation using a simplified model suitably developed in Matlab-Simulink^®.