Development of a high thrust linear actuator with high backdrivability

This paper presents design and analysis of a novel high thrust linear actuator with high backdrivability. This motor consists of a mover and stator with spiral structure. The mover moves spirally in the stator and the linear motion is extracted to drive the load. This motor is a direct-drive system and highly backdrivable. In this paper, a basic model and thrust/torque equations are proposed, and the development of a prototype is presented. From the analysis, the designed spiral motor is expected to achieve higher thrust per unit volume than the conventional linear motors.