Low cost, high performance actuators for dynamic robots

Abstract

The recent growth of the remote control airplane and drone market has created great availability of extremely cheap, yet very power and torque dense electric motors. However, these motors have for the most part been neglected by the robotics community. This thesis documents the development of a hardware, firmware, and controls platform for using these motors in robotics applications - specifically for running robots. A sampling of these motors were characterized, and appropriate position sensing, power electronics and field-oriented motor control systems for torque, position, and impedance control of the motors was developed. Additionally, a module which combines motor, electronics, and single-stage planetary gearset was designed and fabricated. For demonstration, a pair of these motor-controller- gearbox modules were incorporated in a 2-degree- of-freedom leg capable of jumping and controlling its joint impedances.