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9

Related motors and actuators

Chapter outline
9.1 Voice coils .................................................................................................................................... 228
9.2 Limited-angle torque motors..................................................................................................... 229
9.3 Piezoelectric motors.................................................................................................................... 232
9.4 Shape-memory alloy................................................................................................................... 233
9.5 Switched reluctance motors ...................................................................................................... 235
9.6 Summary...................................................................................................................................... 238
References........................................................................................................................................... 238

The previous chapters have considering the motors and drives that are normally used
within the range of applications that have been discussed in Chapter 1,
Electromechanical Systems. However, there are a number of specialist or unconven-
tional motors that can and are being used in an increasing number of applications.
These motors may be selected for a wide verity of reasons, both technical and
commercial. This chapter considers several these motors and their associated
controllers, therefore allowing the design engineer to have an overview of all available
technologies. In this chapter the following motors and actuators are considered:
Voice coil actuators
Limited-angle torque motors
Piezoelectric motors
Shape memory alloy, SMA
Switched reluctance motors
While these motors and actuators currently have specialist niches in servo drive
applications, other motors are currently being developed based a wide range of tech-
nologies, including electrostatic and micro electromechanical (MEM) technologies, and
these are gaining general acceptance (Hameyer and Belmans, 1999). Currently this
technology is still the early stage of use, but the applications currently being explored are
significant and challenging, and for example include the manipulation of a single DNA
molecule (Chiou and Lee, 2005).
When considering unusual types of actuator, recent work in robotics needs to be
considered. In Chapter 1 we considered the design and operation of industrial and
mobile robots, in general these are driven by the motors and drives discussed

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