Abstract
This paper reports a spherical induction motor (SIM) and its stall torque characteristics. The SIM consists of a set of linear motor inductors fitting to a spherical surface and a two layered spherical shell with a copper layer on a steel layer as a rotor. The motor could output up to 5Nm (40N on the surface) within approx. 5ms response. With mouse sensor sensing, it can also perform velocity and rotational control. Developed SIM is described briefly first, including hardware, command distribution to the inductors, and motion sensing of the rotor using optical mouse sensors. Then the measured torque characteristics follow. It has almost linear command-to-output response in multi-DOF output.
