Analysis of a Novel Magnetization Pattern for 2-DoF Rotary-Linear Actuators

Direct-drive electromagnetic actuators with multiple degrees of freedom emerge to replace cascaded actuators to improve performance and reliability. An example is the rotary-linear actuator as widely described in literature and used in robotic applications. Checkerboard permanent magnet (PM) arrays are exploited to create a suitable magnetic field distribution. In this paper, a novel PM-array is presented which can be used in combination with classical windings for rotation and translation to realize a cost-efficient actuator. A 2D model is presented and validated to approximate the rotational and translational performance of the actuator.