Research Projects

Magnetic levitated motors have gained popularity inSpace applications because of their merits overconventional motor with mechanical ball bearings.Magnetic bearings offer virtually zero wear andextremely low friction losses. They do not suffer fromstiction and friction effects common with mechanicalball bearings, making them ideal candidates for deepspace missions with long hibernation periods, longlifetime requirements and wide operational temperatureranges. Earth observation, pointing missions andscience missions can clearly benefit from their very lowmicro-vibration and body noise emission levels.Magnetic bearings can broadly be classified into theactive magnetic bearing (AMB) and the passivemagnetic bearing (PMB). Normally Magneticallylevitated motors use a hybrid AMB/PMB Systems toreduce system complexity and cost.The aim of the project is to design and developa compact Magnetically levitated system using AMB orhybrid AMB/PMB driven by BLDC/PMSM (10 kRPM,0.1 Nm). Active control is required in Magnetic bearingfor minimum two axes. Motor is preferably aBLDC/PMSM motor with minimum cogging torque.High torque to weight ratio is desirable. DriveElectronics, part of magnetically levitated motorcomposes of control electronics for AMB and driveelectronics for BLDC/PMSM. Sensor-less control ispreferred for the motor. Rotor position for levitationcontrol can be obtained using suitable sensors. Thewhole system should be power efficient and compact.