Modeling of torque output and magnetic force for novel spherical actuator with three-dimensional pole arrays

A novel PM spherical actuator based on three-dimensional pole array is proposed and developed in this paper. Conventionally, 2D pole arrays are widely employed in the design of spherical actuators, which constraints the system torque output greatly. The concept of 3D pole array is aimed at improving the torque performance. The torque has been analyzed and the corresponding analytical model is established based on curve fitting method (CFM) due to the importantance to real-time control. Magnetic force has been studied in a similar way. The results shows that the modeling method has a relatively high precision and can be further used in the real-time control.